The ministry of healing : miracles of cure in all ages

X GORDON MELTON

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The LMinistry of Healing

Miracles of Cure in All Ages

•/

B*

A. J. Gordon

THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO.
690 EIGHTH AVENUE

New York

Copyright by Howakd Ganmbt*.

CONTENTS.

I.— THE QUESTION AND ITS BEARINGS.

MM
Have there been any miracles since theaposlles? — Tradi-
tional answer— Unreasonable dread of miracles —
Healing and regeneration — Demand of the age respect-
ing the supernatural — Growing sway of naturalism —
How it can be resisted. ... ... ... I

II.— THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.

Christ bearing our sicknesses — Forgiveness and healing —
Signs promised in the great commission —Comments
of Bullinger and Bengel on the same — Promise in
Tames — The threefold test of perpetuity — Lange on
anointing. ... .. ... ... 16

III.— THE TESTIMONY OF REASON.

Archbishop Tillotson. — " Very agreeable to reason " — The
cessation theory against analogy — Miracles not abnor-
mal— Considered as signs — The first fruits of re-
demption— Miracles of healing distinguished from
other miracles — Views of Ellicott and Godet as to
their continuance. ... ... "39

IV.— THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.

Dr. Gerhard Uhlhorn's verdict on the teaching of the
Fathers — Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Terullian, Origen,
Clement — Decline of apostolic miracles — The age of
Constantine — Revival of miracles with revival of
faith — Doctrine of the Waldenses on miraculous
healing— The Moravians hold and practice it — The
Huguenots —Wonderful records among the Cove-

IV CONTENTS.

■Ml
nanters — Friends, Baptists and Methodists all bear
witness — Joseph Benson's story. ... ... 58

K—THE TESTIMONY OF THEOLOGIANS.

Augustine — His view defined by Trench — He tells the
story of a miracle of healing — Luther's strong faith —
He raises Melancthon from mortal sickness — Mycon-
ius called back from the gates of death — Baxter's
strong testimony and personal experience — Bengel
pronounces for modern miracles — Edward Irving's
views — Thomas Erskine's doctrine and proof — Bush-
nell, " miracles and supernatural gifts not discontin-
ued '' — Other witnesses. ... ... ... 87

VI— THE TESTIMONY OF MISSIONS.

Importance of evidence from this field — Argument of Prof.
Christlieb — His strong endorsement of missionary
miracles — Instances cited by him — Testimony of
Grotius— Witness of missionaries themselves — Preach-
ing the gospel with signs following — A commenta-
tor's prayer. ... ... ... ... 116

VII.— THE TESTIMONY OF THE ADVERSARY.

False miracles a witness to the true. — Antichrist and his lying
wonders — Spiritualism and Necromancy— The spu-
rious should not prejudice us against the genuine —
Christlieb on miracles in the last days — Erskine on
Satan's use of the church's denial — Caution and
watchfulness required. ... ... ... 131

VIII<—THE TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.

Some who have practiced the ministry of healing — Dorothea
Trudel — Her remarkable consecration, and power in
prayer— Her persecutions and triumphs — Home for
healing at Manncdorf — Samuel Zellcr her successor—

conisnts.

Pastor Blumhardt — His devoted life— Striking In-
stance of cure and its effect — Pastor Stockmayer —
His exposition of the doctrine of sickness and heal-
ing— Pastor Rein — His saintly character and apos-
tolic works — Lord Radstock's views — Dr. Cullis and
his work of faith in Boston. ... ... ... 144

IX.— THE TESTIMONY OF THE HEALED.

JOne thing I know"— Value of experience — Story of Miss
Fancourt's healing — Her venerable father's confirma-
tion — Evil entreated — A cripple healed — Comment
of Rev. Morgan Edwards — The Doctor's story—
Broken arm restored — Miss Jennie Smith — The all
night prayer meeting — The victory of faith — Reflec-
tions. ... ... ... ... 174

X.—THE VERDICT OF CANDOR.

Jellet on miracles — False theory of sickness — Healing rare
because faith is rare — God's sovereignty not to be
contravened — Value of testimony cited — Danger of
denying the supernatural — Unbelief of our time-
Effect of miracles of healing on their subjects. ... 195

XL— THE VERDICT OF CAUTION.

Too much not to be demanded of the church of to-day—
Heresy to be avoided — Dangers of fanaticism —
Need of study and quietness — Prof. Godet — The
true secret of knowledge — A memorable instance of
national prayer — Caution against dogmatism and
pride. ... ... ... ... 209

XII.— THE CONCLUSLON.

The prayer of faith a great attainment — Coleridge's testi-
mony — How reached — Three conditions — Commun-
ion, obedience, submission — Thy will be done —
Words to the sick. ... ... ... 234

THE QUESTION AND ITS BEARINGS.

INTRODUCTORY.

Have there been any miracles since the days of
the apostles? To this question the common an-
swer has been, in our times at least, a decided no.
A call recently put forth in one of our religious jour-
nals, asking the opinion of ministers, teachers and
theological professors on this point was very largely
answered ; and the respondents were well nigh
unanimous in the opinion that the age of miracles
passed away with the apostolic period. The state-
ment contained in several of these replies gave
evidence indeed that the question had never been
deeply investigated by the witnesses. In some
instances there was a perhaps unintentional
evading of the issue by the question " What is a
miracle? - But there were only one or two replies
which gave countenance to the view, that miracles
are possible in all ages and have appeared more or

2 THE QUESTION

less numerously in every period of the Church5 c
history. If then the little book which we now
send forth shall win any assent for its views, it will
not do so in all probability because its sentiments
accord with the opinion of the majority of the
theologians of the day.

It is therefore no enviable task which we have
undertaken. The demand of the times is rather in
the contrary direction from that in which our con-
viction carries us. "The strongest requirement
now pressing on the Church is for an adaptation
of Christianity to the age," — so we read not long
since. How presumptuous it will look in the face
of such an utterance for one to set his face squarely
in the opposite direction, and insist that the great
est present demand is for the adaptation of the
age to Christianity. And not that exactly; for
" this present evil age " can never be made to har-
monize with a religion that is entirely heavenly in
its origin, in its course and in its consummation.
But wc trust it will not be presumption to say that
the Church in every direction needs to be re-shaped
to the apostolic model and re-invested with her
apostolic powers. For is it not apparent that be-
tween the indignant clamor of skeptics against

AND ITS BEARINGS. 3

primitive miracles, and the stern frowning of theolo-
gians upon any alleged modern miracles, the Lord's
people are in danger of being frightened out of
their faith in the supernatural ? We speak of what
we have often noticed. A simple hearted believer
comes into the assembly of the Church and details
some remarkable answer to prayer — prayer for
healing or prayer for deliverance, in response to
which he alleges that God has wrought marvel-
lously ; and then we notice the slowness and shy-
ness with which Christians turn their ears to the
story, and the glances of embarrassment amount-
ing almost to shamefacedness which they cast
towards the minister, as though appealing for res-
cue from the perilous neighborhood of fanaticism
to which they have been drawn. This we have
often observed, and on it we have pondered, and
from it we have raised the question again and again,
whether the Church has not drifted into an un-
seemly cautiousness concerning the miraculous.
As a religion which is ritual is sure to put
vestments on her ministers sooner or later, so a
religion which is rational rather than spiritual,
will be certain to put vestments on the Lord's prov-
idences, insisting on their being draped in the ha-

4. THE QUESTION

biliments of decent cause and effect, and attired in
the surplice of natural law and order, lest God
should " make bare his holy arm in the eyes of all
the nations." "The world dislikes the recurrence
of miracles." Yes, without question. For the
world which " by wisdom knew not God " is very
jealous of everything which it cannot explain or
reproduce. "A miracle is something very embar-
rassing to mock professors." Doubtless; for it
brings such, uncomfortably near to God. Accus-
tomed only to such manifestations of the Infinite
as have been softened and assuaged by passing
through the medium of the natural, they cannot
bear this close proximity to the Cause of causes.
" He that is near to me is near to the fire ; " is one
of the sayings which apocrypha puts into the mouth
of Christ. How shall they whose feet have never
put off their shoes of rationalism and worldliness
come near the burning bush, and into open vision
of the "I am."

But it is not worldlings and false professors alone
that dislike miracles. Real.true hearted and sincere
disciples are afraid of them and inclined to push
away with quick impatience, any mention of their
possible occurrence in our time. In most cases

AND ITS BEARINGS. 5

probably this aversion comes from a wholesome
fear of fanaticism.

On which point permit us to observe : — that
fanaticism is in most instances simply the eccentric
action of doctrines that have been loosened from
their connection with the Christian system. Every
truth needs the steadiness and equipoise which
come from its being bound into harmony with all
other truths. If the Church by her neglect or de-
nial of any real doctrine of the faith thrusts that
doctrine out into isolation and contempt, thus com-
pelling it to become the property of some special
sect she need not be surprised if it loses its bal-
ance. She has deprived it of the conserving influ-
ence which comes from contact and communion with
other and central doctrines and so doomed it inevi-
tably to irregular manifestations. If the whole body
of Christians had been faithful to such truths as
that of the second coming of Christ, and scriptu-
ral holiness, for example, we probably should never
have heard of the fanaticism of adventism and per-
fectionism. Let a fragment be thrown off from
the most orderly planet and it will whirl and rush
through space till it is heated hot by its own mo-
mentum. It is nothing against a doctrine in our

6 THE QUESTION

minds therefore that it has engendered fanaticism.
One who studies the history of important religious
revivals indeed must take quite an opposite view,
and suspect that it is a proof of the vitality of the
truth around which it has gathered.

Who that is acquainted with the religious move-
ments led by Luther and Wesley and with the end-
less extravagances that followed in their wake does
not see that in these instances the stir produced
came from the writhing of wounded error rather
than from the birth of falsehood, from the contor-
tions of the strangled serpents around the cradle of
a new Hercules come for reformation. So let us
be less disturbed by the unaccustomed stir of truth
than by the propriety of dead and decent error.

But we are offering no apology for fanaticism and
providing no place for it in connection with the doc-
trine which we are defending. It need have no
place. We believe in regeneration, the work in
which God comes into immediate contact with the
soul for its renewal That is no less a miracle than
healing in which God comes into immediate con-
tact with the body for its recovery. In the one
case there is a direct communication of the divine
life to the spirit, which Neander calls " the stand-

AND ITS BEARINGS. J

ing miracle of the ages ; " in the other there is a
direct communication of the divine health to the
body which in the beginning was called " a miracle
of healing." An able writer has said, we believe
with exact truth : " You ask God to pet form as real
a miracle when you ask him to cure your soul of sin
as you do when you ask him to cure your body of a
fever."* Yet who of us thinks of encouraging
fanaticism by preaching and praying for man's
regeneration ? Enthusiasm has often kindled about
this truth indeed, when it has had to be revived
after long neglect and denial, but not when it has
been held in orderly, and recognized relation to
other cardinal doctrines.

Very beautifully did one say of the sister of the
poet Wordsworth, that "it was she -who couched his
eye to the beauties of nature." More than any-
thing else is it needed to-day that some one
couch the eyes of Christians to the realities of the
supernatural. Holden of unbelief, filmed with sus-
picion and distrust, how many of the Lord's truest
servants would be unable to discern his hand
if he were to put it forth in miracles. It is not
easy for those whose daily bread has always been

* Jellett: Efficacy of Prayer; Donnellan Lectures, 1877, p. 43.

8 THE QUESTION

forthcoming, with no occasion for the raven's min-
istration to believe in miraculous feeding. The
eyes that " stand out with fatness " would be the
last ones to catch sight of the angels if they should
chance to be sent with bread to some starving dis-
ciple. To whom saith the Lord "anoint thine
eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see ? " Is it
not to those that say " I am rich and increased in
goods and in need of nothing ? " If then we protest
that we do not see what others claim to have wit-
nessed of the Lord's out-stretched hand, it may be
because of a Laodicean self-satisfaction into which
we have fallen. When shall we learn that "the
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him "
most deeply, and not of necessity with those who
have studied the doctrines most deeply. And so if
the eyes long unused to any sight of the Lord's
wonder-working are to be couched to the realities
of the supernatural, it may be some very humble
agent that shall perform the work, some saintly
Dorothea of Mannedorf at whose feet theologians
sit to learn things which their utmost wisdom had
failed to grasp, or some Catharine of Siena who
speaks to learned ecclesiastics with such depth of
insight that they exclaim with astonishment " never

AND ITS BEARINGS. 9

man spoke like this woman." In other words let
us not be too reluctant to admit that some of God's
children in sore poverty and trial and distress, and
with the keener faith which such conditions have
developed may have had dealings with God of which
we know nothing. At all events be not angry, Oh
ye wise and prudent, at those Christians of simple
faith, who believe with strong confidence that they
have had the Saviour's healing touch laid upon
them.

Nor should we unwittingly limit the Lord by our
too confident theories about the cessation of mira-
cles. The rationalist jealous of any suggestion
that God in these days may cross the boundary
line that divides the natural from the supernatural
cries out against "the dogma of divine interfer-
ence " as he names it. The traditionalist viewing
with equal jealousy any notion that the Lord may
pass the line that separates the apostolic from the
post-apostolic age, and still act in his office of mira-
cle working sounds the cry of fanaticism. But
what if some meantime should begin to talk about
" the crown rights of Immanuel " as the old Cove-
nanters did, insisting on his prerogative to work
what he will, and when he will, and how he will,

IO THE QUESTION

without our compelling it to be said of us and o{
our century that " he could not do many mighty
works among them because of their unbelief?" Cer-
tainly the time has come for us to make use of all
the divine assistance that is within our reach. If
there are any residuary legacies of power and priv-
ilege accruing to us since the fathers fell asleep,
and yet remaining unclaimed, every consideration is
pressing us to come forward and take possession of
them. For observe what confessions of weakness
our Protestant Churches are unconsciously putting
forth on every hand. Note the dependence which
is placed on artistic music, on expensive edifices;
on culture and eloquence in the pulpit ; on literary
and social entertainments for drawing in the peo-
ple, and on fairs and festivals for paying expenses
Hear the reports that come in at any annual con
vention of Churches, of the new organs and fres-
coings and furnishings, and of the — not saints' festi-
vals— but strawberry festivals and ice cream festi-
vals and flower festivals and the large results there-
from accruing. And all this from Churches that
count themselves to be the body of Christ and the
habitation of God through the Spirit ! Is not this
an infinite descent from the primitive records of

AND ITS BEARINGS. II

power and success — the Lord "confirming the
word with signs following" and the preaching
which was " not with enticing words of man's wis-
dom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power f"

How deeply we need the demonstration of the
Spirit in these days ! We have not utterly lost it
indeed. When men are renewed by the Holy
Ghost, and give the world the exhibition of a life
utterly and instantly transformed, that is a master
stroke for our divine religion. "And that is all we
want," most will say. But did such ever witness
an instance of a drunkard cured in a moment of
enslaving appetite by the prayer of faith ; the opi-
um habit which had baffled for years every device
of the physicians broken and utterly eradicated by
the direct energy of God's spirit ; the consumptive
brought back from the edge of the grave, or the
blind made to see by the same power, after long
years of darkness — and the glowing love, the ex-
exultant thankfulness, the fervid consecration which
almost invariably follow such gracious deliverances ?
If they have not, they have not witnessed a sight
that has within our own time and knowledge ex-
torted conviction from the most reluctant witnesses.

12 THE QUESTION

These are some of the practical bearings of the
question before us.

It is not our purpose in this volume to define a
miracle any further than we have already done so.
For the definitions generally given are widely vari-
ant ; and it is easy for a disputant to evade facts by
entrenching himself behind a definition. We prefer
rather to appeal to specimens of acknowledged
miracles and then to press the question whether
there have been any like them in modern days. It
is written in the Acts of the Apostles as follows.
"And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay
sick of a fever and of a bloody flux ; to whom Paul
entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him
and healed him."* This is conceded, we suppose
to be a miracle of healing. Has anything of the
same sort occurred in the Church since the days of
the apostles ?

Again it is written in the same book :

" And a certain man lame from his mother's womb
was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of
them that entered into the temple : Who, seeing
Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked

•ActoaSi 8. i Act* III: t.8.

AND ITS BEARINGS. 13

an dims. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him
with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed
unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none ; but
such as I have give I thee : In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he
took him by the right hand, and lifted him up : and
immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked,
and entered with them into the temple, walking,
and leaping, and praising God."

This transaction is expressly called a " miracle of
healing " in the same scripture. Has there been
any recurrence of such a miracle since the time
of Christ's immediate disciples ? It has been our
purpose in preparing the present volume to let the
history of the Church of all ages answer to the
teaching of scripture on this question without pre-
suming to dogmatize upon it ourselves.

One who has not committed himself on this sub-
ject, as it was the fortune of the writer to do a
year ago in a little tract called "the Ministry of
Healing" has several things to learn. First that
there is a sensitiveness amounting often to extreme
irratibility towards any who venture to disturb the

14 THE QUESTION

traditional view of this question. Credulity is sure
to get more censure than honest doubt ; and while
one may with impunity fall behind the accepted
standard of faith concerning the supernatural, pro-
vided he does it in a regretfully necessitous spirit,
it is hardly safe for one to go beyond that stand-
ard. Thus a little experience has made us aware
of the peril to which we have exposed ourselves of
being sorely shot at by the theological archers.
But being defamed we still entreat our critics to
deal kindly and candidly with us since we desire
naught but the furtherance of the truth.

But in another way one has a real advantage
who has published his views on such a question.
His communication puts him en rapport with those
like-minded, and opens to him sources of informa-
tion which he could not otherwise have had. It
has been an occasion of no little surprise to us to
learn how widely the minds of Christians of all
names and countries are exercised upon this subject.
Information to this effect has come to us not only
in the constant testimonies from humble Christians
who bear witness to what God has wrought in their
own bodies ; but also from pastors and evangelists
and bible readers and foreign missionaries and in

AND ITS BEARINGS. Ij

one instance from a theological professor expressing
their strong assent to the view which is herein set
forth. We are well aware indeed that it is not a
question of human opinion, but of scriptural testi-
mony. On the word of God therefore we wish oul
argument to lean its heaviest weight. The wit*
nesses which we have brought forward from the
Church of all the ages, have been summoned only
that they may corroborate this word. May the
Lord graciously use whatever of truth there may
be in this volume for the comfort and blessing of
his children ; may he mercifully pardon whatever
of error or forwardness of opinion it may contain.
And if by his blessing and furtherance our word*
should bring a ray of hope to any who are sick, let
not those who are " whole " and who " need not a
physician," unreasonably grudge their suffering
and afflicted brethren this boon of comfort

II.

THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.

In the atonement of Christ there seems to be a
foundation laid for faith in bodily healing. Seems
— we say, for the passage to which we refer is so
profound and unsearchable in its meaning that one
would be very careful not to speak dogmatically in
regard to it. But it is at least a deep and sugges-
tive truth that we have Christ set before us as the
sickness-bearer as well as the sin-bearer of his peo-
ple. In the gospel it is written, " And he cast out
devils and healed all that were sick, that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet
saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our
sicknesses."* Something more than sympathetic
fellowship with our sufferings is evidently referred
to here. The yoke of his cross by which he lifted
our iniquities took hold also of our diseases ; so
that it is in some sense true that as God " made

•Matt. 8 1 if.

OF SCRIPTURE. IJ

him to be sin for us who knew no sin," so he made
him to be sick for us who knew no sickness. He
who entered into mysterious sympathy with our
pain which is the fruit of sin, also put himself un-
derneath our pain which is the penalty of sin. In
other words the passage seems to teach that Christ
endured vicariously our diseases as well as our
iniquities.*

If now it be true that our Redeemer and substi-
tute bore our sicknesses, it would be natural to
reason at once that he bore them that we might
not bear them. And this inference is especially
strengthened from the fact, that when the Lord
Jesus removed the burden of disease from "all
that were sick," we are told that it was done "that

*Dr. Hovey commenting on this passage says: "The words quoted by the
evaugelist are descriptive in the original passage of vicarious suffering. It is
next to impossible to understand them otherwise. Hence in the miraculous healing
of disease, a fruit if not a penalty of sin, Jesus appears to have had a full sense of
the evil and pain which he removed. His anguish in the garden and on the cross
was but the culmination of that which he felt almost daily while healiug the sick,
cleansing the leprous or forgiving the penitent. By the holy sharpness of his vis-
ion he pierced quite through the veil of sense and natural cause, and saw the
■moral evil, the black root of all disorder, the source of all bodily suffering. He
could therefore Ileal neitlier bodily nor spiritual disease without a deep con-
sciousness of his special relation to tnan as the substitute, the Redeemer, tlie
Lamb of God who was to bear the penalty ef the world' }s guilt." The Miracles
of Christ, p. 1 20.

1 8 THE lESHMONY

the scripture might be fulfilled, Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses." Let us re-
member what our theology is in regard to atone-
ment for sin. "Christ bore your sins, that you
might be delivered from them," we say to the pen-
itent. Not sympathy — a suffering with, but sub-
stitution— a suffering for, is our doctrine of the
Cross ; and therefore we urge the transgressor to
accept the Lord Jesus as his sin-bearer, that he
may himself no longer have to bear the pains and
penalties of his disobedience. But should we
shrink utterly from reasoning thus concerning
Christ as our pain-bearer? We do so argue to
some extent at least.. For we hold that in its
ultimate consequences the atonement affects the
body as well as the soul of man. Sanctification
is the consummation of Christ's redemptive work
for the soul ; and resurrection is the consumma-
tion of his redemptive work for the body. And
these meet and are fulfilled at the coming and
kingdom of Christ.

But there is a vast intermediate work of cleans-
ing and renewal effected for the soul. Is there
none of healing and recovery for the body ? Here,
to make it plain, is the Cross of Christ ; yonder is

OF SCRIPTURE. I<)

the Coming of Christ. These are the two piers of
redemption, spanned by the entire dispensation of
the Spirit and by all the ordinances and offices of
the gospel At the cross we read this two-fold
declaration : —

" Who his own self bare our sins."
" Himself bare our sicknesses."
At the coming we find this two-fold work prom-
ised : —

" The sanctification of the Spirit."
"The redemption of the body."
The work of sanctification for the spirit stretches
on from the cross to the crown, progressive and
increasing till it is completed. Does the work of
the body's redemption touch only at these two
remote points ? Has the gospel no office of heal-
ing and blessing to proclaim meantime for the
physical part of man's nature ? In answering this
question we only make the following suggestions,
which point significantly in one direction.

Christ's ministry was a two-fold ministry, effect-
ing constantly the souls and the bodies of men.
" Thy sins are forgiven thee," and " Be whole of
thy plague," are parallel announcements of the
Saviour's work which are found constantly running
on side by side.

20 THE TESTIMONY

The ministry of the apostles, under the guidance
of the Comforter, is the exact fac-simile of the
Master's. Preaching the kingdom and healing the
sick ; redemption for the soul and deliverance for
the body — these are its great offices and an-
nouncements. Certain great promises of the gos-
pel have this double reference to pardon and cure.
The commission for the world's evangelization bids
its messengers stretch out their hands to the sin-
ner with the message, " He that believeth shall be
saved," and to " lay hands on the sick and they
shall recover." The promise by James, concern-
ing the prayer of faith, is that it " shall save the
sick, and if he have committed sins they shall be
forgiven him." Thus this two-fold ministry of re-
mission of sins and remission of sickness extends
through the days of Christ and that of the apos-
tles.

We only suggest these facts, leaving the exam-
ple and acts and promises of the Lord and his apos-
tles to stretch out their silent index in the direction
which our argument will obediently pursue through-
out this discussion.

Only one other fact need be alluded to — the
subtle, mysterious, and clearly recognized rtiwliop

OF SCRIPTURE. 21

of sin and disease. The ghastly flag of leprosy,
flung out in the face of Miriam, told instantly that
the pirate sin had captured her heart. Not less
truly did the crimson glow of health announce her
forgiveness when afterwards the Lord had par-
doned her and restored her to his fellowship. And
it is obvious at once that our Redeemer cannot
forgive and eradicate sin without in the same act
disentangling the roots which that sin has struck
into our mortal bodies.

He is the second Adam come to repair the ruin
of the first And in order to accomplish this he
will follow the lines of man's transgression back to
their origin, and forward to their remotest issue.
He will pursue the serpent trail of sin, dispensing
his forgiveness and compassion as he goes, till at
last he finds the wages of sin, and dies its death
on the cross ; and he will follow the wretched
track of disease with his healing and recovery,
till in his resurrection he shall exhibit to the
world the first fruits of these redeemed bodies, in
which " this corruptible shall have put on incor-
ruption, and this mortal shall have put on immor-
tality."

From this mysterious and solemn doctrine of the

12 THE TESTIMONY

gospel, let us turn now to some of its clear and
explicit promises.

We will take first the words of the gospel ac-
cording to Mark : " These signs sJtall follow them
that believe : in my name shall they cast out devils ;
they shall speak with other tongues ; they shall take
up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing it
shall not hurt them, ; they shall lay their hands on
the sick and they shall recover." *

It is important to observe that this rich cluster
of miraculous promises all hangs by a single stem,
faith. And this is not some exclusive, or esoteric
faith. The same believing to which is attached
the promise of salvation, has joined to it also the
promise of miraculous working. Nor is there any
ground for limiting this promise to apostolic times
and apostolic men, as has been so violently at-
tempted. The links of the covenant are very
securely forged, "He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved," in any and every age of the Chris-
tian dispensation. So with one consent the church
has interpreted the words, " And these signs shall
follow them that believe" in every generation and

Or SCRIPTURE. 23

period of the church's history; — so the language
compels us to conclude.

And let us not unbraid this two-fold cord of
promise, holding fast to the first strand because
we know how to use it, and flinging the other back
to the apostles because we know not how to use it.
When our Lord gives command to the twelve, as he
sends them forth, " to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of diseases," we might conclude
that this was an apostolic commission, and one
which we could not be warranted in applying to
ourselves. But here the promise is not only to the
apostles, but to those who should believe on Christ
through the word of these apostles ; or as Bullingef
the Reformer very neatly puts it in his comment
on the passage, to " both the Lord's disciples and thf
disciples of the Lords disciples" *

Whatever practical difficulties we may have in
regard to the fulfilment of this word, these ought
not to lead us to limit it where the Lord has not

* " Et discipuli Domini, et discipulorum Domini discipuli." And to show his
belief in the fulfilment of the promise, Bullinger adds, " To this the Acts of the
Apostles bear witness. Ecclesiastical history bears witness to the same. Lastly,
the present times bear witness; wherein through confidence in the name oj
Crnrisi numbers greatly afflicted and shattered with disease are restored afresh
fr^eaUh."

24 THE TESTIMONY

limited it For if reason or tradition throws om
half of this illustrious promise into eclipse, tho
danger is that the other half may become involved.
Indeed we shall not soon forget the cogency with
which we heard a skilful skeptic use this text
against one who held the common opinion concern-
ing it Urged to "believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ," that he might be saved, he answered :
" How can I be sure that this part of the promise
will be kept with me, when, as you admit, the other
part is not kept with the church of to-day ? " And
certainly, standing on the traditional ground, one
must be dumb before such reasoning. The only
safe position is to assert emphatically the perpetu-
ity of the promise, and with the same emphasis to
admit the general weakness and failure of the
church's faith in appropriating it.* For who does
not see that a confession of human inability is a
far safer and more rational refuge for the Christian
than an implication of the divine changeableness
and limitation. There is a phrase of the apostle
Paul which has always struck us as containing
marvellous keenness and wisdom if not covert

•"The reason why mtrnrnj miracha »r« not now wrong hi k not ao much becauat
fafck i i — Hbhhcd. m th» wmitli^f rtigns."- JfcappC

OF SCRIPTURE. 2$

irony — " What the law could not do in that it
was weak through the flesh." The law must not
be impugned by even a suspicion ; " the law of the
Lord is perfect." But there has been utter failure
under its working — the perfection which it re-
quires has not appeared. Rashly and dangerously,
it would seem, the apostle has arraigned the law,
telling us what it " could not do " and wherein it
was " weak " — and then, having brought us to the
perilous edge of disloyalty, he suddenly turns and
puts the whole fault on us where it belongs —
" What the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh" The one weak spot in the law
is human nature ; there is where the break is sure
to come ; there is where the fault is sure to lie.
In like manner this great promise, with which
Christ's commission is enriched and authenticated,
has failed only through our unbelief. It is weak
through the weakness of our faith, and inoperative
through lack of our co-operating obedience.* We
believe therefore that whatever difficulties there
may be in us, there is but one attitude for us to

•"It is the want of faith in our age which is the greatest hindrance to the
stronger and more marked appearance of that miraculous power which is working
iiere and there in quiet concealment. Unbelief is the final and most important
reason fin- the retrogression of miracles" — CkristlUVs Modern Doubt, /. 3j4

26 THE TESTIMONY

take as expounders of the scripture, that of unqual-
ified assent.

The treatment which the Commentator Stier
gives to this passage is truly refreshing. It is a
brawny Saxon exegesis laying hold of a text, to
cling to it, not to cull from it ; to crown it with an
amen ! not to condition it with a date. For he puts
the two sayings side by side and bids us look at
them ; moteieae " He that believeth ; shall be saved:"
mateiiagt "Them that believe; these signs shall
follow." And then he gives us these strong words.
" Both the one and the other apply to ourselves
down to the present day and indeed for all future
time. Every one applies the first part of the
saying to ourselves : teaching everywhere that faith
and baptism are necessary in all ages to salvation,
and that unbelief in all ages excludes from it.
But what right has any to separate the words that
Jesus immediately added from his former words ?
Where is it said that these former words have refe-
rence to all men and all Christians, but that the
promised signs which should follow those who be-
lieve referred solely to the Christians of the first
age ? What God hath joined together, let not man
put asunder."

OF SCRIPTURE. 27

It should be observed however, that while the same
word is employed in both clauses of this text, there
is a change in number from the singular to the
plural form. "He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved." The promise of eternal life is to
personal faith, and to every individual on the ground
of his faith. " Them that believe, these signs shall
follow." The promise of miracles is to the faithful
as a body. The church has come into existence so
soon as any have believed and been baptized ; and
thus this guarantee of miraculous signs seems to
be to the church in its corporate capacity. "Are all
workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing?
do all speak with tongues?" asks the apostle.
Nay, but some employ these offices, so that the
gifts are found in the church as a whole. For the
church is " the body of Christ," and to vindicate
its oneness with the Head it shall do the things
which he did, as well as speak the words which he
spake. How significant the place where this
promise is found ! It was given just as the Lord
was to be received up into heaven to become
" Head over all things to his church." It is Eli-
jah's mantle let fall upon Elisha ; so that having
this, the disciple can repeat the miracles of the

28 THE TESTIMONY

Master. Oh timid church, praying for a " double
portion of the Spirit " of the ascending prophet,
and having his promise "greater works than these
shall ye do, because I go to my Father," and yet
afraid to claim even a fragment of his miracle work-
ing power! We conclude therefore that this
text teaches that the miraculous gifts were be-
stowed to abide in the church to the end, though
not that every believer should be endowed with
them.

This promise given in Mark emerges in perform-
ance in the Acts of the Apostles. But it is sig-
nificant and to be carefully observed, that the mi-
raculous gifts are not found exclusively in the
hands of the Apostles. Stephen and Philip and
Barnabas, exercised them. These did not belong
to the twelve, to that special and separated body
of disciples with whom it has been said, that the
gifts were intended to remain. It was not Stephen
an apostle, but " Stephen a man full of faith and
of the Holy Ghost—" " Stephen full of faith and
power* that "did great wonders and miracles
among the people."* We in these days cannot be
apostles : but we are commanded to be " filled with

•• Kingiii : 9, 15. * Acts vi: 5,8.

OF SCRIPTURE 29

the Spirit," and therefore are at least required and
enjoined to have Stephen's qualifications. Ac-
cording to the teaching in Corinthians it is as mem-
bers of Christ's body and partakers of his Spirit,
that we receive these truths.*

We come now to consider the promise in James
v : 14, 15. "Is any sick among you ? Let him call
for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over
him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the
Lord shall raise him up : and if he have committed
sins they shall be forgiven him."

Now let us note the presumption there is that
this passage refers to an established and perpetual
usage in the Church.

That command in the great commission — " Bap-
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost," appears in the Acts
of the apostles in constant exercise; and in the

*" You say that Christ "Jesus and his Apostles and Messengers were endued
with power from on high not only to preach the word for conversion but also with
power of casting out Devils and healing bodily diseases. I answer, as an holy
witness of Christ Jesus once answered a Bishop. ' / am a member of Christ
Jesus as well as Peter himself.' The least Believer and Follower of Jesus
partakes of the nature and spirit of him their holy head and husband as wejl
as the strongest and holiest that ever died or suffered for his holy name."

Roger Williams' Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, 1652.

30 THE TESTIMONY

letters of the Apostles as explained unfolded and
enforced.*

The injunction given at the institution of the
supper " This do in remembrance of me" appears
in the Acts of the Apostles in constant exercise ;
and in the letters of the apostles as explained and
unfolded, and enforced.!

The promise given also in the great commission,
" They sJiall lay their hands on the sick and they
shall recover," appears in the Acts of the Apostles
in constant exercise, and in the letters of the
apostles as explained, unfolded and enforced. J Thus
this office like the great ordinances of Christianity
rests on the three-fold support of promise and prac-
tice and precept. And we cannot too strongly em-
phasize this fact that what was given by our Lord
in promise before his ascension should appear as an
established usage in the church after his ascension.
For we all insist that the church of the apostles
was the model for all time. When we are called
"followers of the Lord" we might rightly protest
that though his followers, we surely could not be
expected to walk in his steps as he enters the field

•Rom. ri: 3,4. Col. It i*. i Pet iii: at. t Arts ii. 46: 1 Cor. z: il
jiCor. xii: j> Janes r : 14, if.

OF SCRIPTURE. 3 1

of the miraculous. When we hear Paul saying
" Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ " we
might well insist that we could not imitate him in
working wonders since he is an apostle and we only
humble disciples. But when we read " For ye
brethren became followers of the Churches of God
which in Judea are in Christ "we say "Yes! in
every point and punctilio. For these are the pat-
tern for all churches in all time." So we all hold
and teach. We believe that there is nothing in all
the ordering and furniture of the church which
was present in the beginning which should be ab-
sent now. And if we rejoice in having the laver
and the bread of the ordinances, the ministry of
the word and prayer ; not the less should we willing-
ly be without the primitive miraculous gifts which
were like the Shechinah glory, the outward visible
signs of God's presence among his people.

To return now to the text which we are consid-
ering. Here is the calling for the elders of the
church — a voluntary appeal to the ministry and
intercessions of the servants of God. Oil is applied
as a symbol of the communication of the Spirit, by
whose power healing is effected. It does not seem
reasonable to suppose, that it is used for its medic-

32 THE TESTIMONY

inal properties. Because observe, it is the elders
of the church, not the doctors of physic, who are
called to apply it ; and it is accompanied by prayer,
not by manipulations and medications. As in
Baptism the disciple confesses his faith in the
cleansing power of Christ's atonement, by the use
of water ; or, as in the Communion he declares his
dependence on Christ for spiritual sustenance, by
the use of bread ; so here he avows his faith in the
saving health of the Spirit by the use of oil* In
other words, this whole ceremony is a kind of sac-
ramental profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the
Divine Physician acting through the Holy Ghost.
Such public profession of faith in Christ as the
Healer the Lord seems rigidly to require, just as
he demands baptism as a confession of faith in him
as the Redeemer. Neither in the forgiveness of
sin nor in the remission of sickness will he permit
a clandestine blessing. There are many who would
gladly secure his healing virtue by stealth, laying
hold of it secretly, but avoiding the publicity and
possible reproach of having applied to such a phy-

* Lange commenting on Mark vi : 13 : " And they anointed toitk oil many that
vterr sick and healed them" say* that oil here is " simply a symbolic medium of
the miraculous work ; " and that " the anointing was a symbol of the bestowment
vi ibe Spirit as a preliminary condition of healing."

OF SCRIPTURE. 33

sician. But this cannot be. The Lord will have
an open acknowledgment of our faith. It will be
remembered that from the woman whom he healed
of an issue of blood, he drew forth a public confes-
sion before he pronounced that full and authorita-
tive absolution from sickness,* "go in peace and
be whole of thy plague."

The promise of recovery is explicit and uncon-
ditional— " And the prayer of faith shall save the
sick and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he
have committed sins they shall be forgiven him."
Doubtless the words "prayer of faith " should be
strongly emphasized. It is the intercession accom-
panied by the special miraculous faith alluded to in
the scriptures as "the gift of faith," and "the gift
of healing" — a faith which we believe to be not
wanting in this age, though comparatively so rare.
And the words which Bengel italicizes in his Com-
mentary ought to be strongly marked — " Let them

* "Threfore when she held her peace trustyng that she might still be undescryed,
lie looked round about upon the people. This looking about was a gesture of him
that courteously required a confession of tlie benefit receyved. He would not
utter her by name, lest he should have seemed to hit her in the teeth with the good
turn he dyd her. It was a pricke or provocation given to make her to put away
that unprofitable shamefastenes s and to •wryng out of her a holesome confession.'
«- Thomas Key.

34 THE TESTIMONY

use oil who are able by their prayers to obtain recov-

ery for the sick ; let those who cannot do this ah'
stain from the empty sign" If the peculiar mirac-
ulous faith of which we speak had utterly disap-
peared from the church, then it would certainly be
best that the usage of anointing should be wanting
also, rather than continue as a hollow sign, or as in
the extreme unction of the church of Rome, a
standing sacramental confession of inability to ren-
der any help to the diseased.

But we are persuaded better things than this.
We believe that there are those in our own time
who have humbly sought, and manifestly obtained
this gift of prevailing faith. If the larger ma-
jority of Christians, either through wrong teaching
or indifference have willingly consented to surren-
der this primitive birth-right of the church, and
have learned to say without emotion to the sick,
that lie at their doors " thy bruise is incurable, and
thy wound is grevious, there is none to plead
thy cause that thou mayest be bound up ; " there
are some who are more jealous for the Lord's
honor in this matter. Because they believe that
the miraculous gifts are for all ages, they have
thought it not covetous to seek them for them-

OF SCRJPTURB. 35

selves — and yet not for themselves, but that
through them the Lord might still show forth his
glory. And why should it be thought a thing in-
credible that they may have obtained what they
sought ? In the old dispensation were miracles of
healing shut up within some narrow and special
age ? Run through the list and see : — Abraham
healing Abimelech and his household by his pray-
ers to God ; Moses crying unto God for Miriam,
" Heal her now, O God I beseech thee," and the
Lord, answering with the promise that after seven
days her leprosy should depart ; God's cure of the
bitten Israelites in answer to Moses' prayer, and
through a look of faith at the brazen serpent ;
Naaman the Syrian recovered of his leprosy by
the faith of Elisha ; Hezekiah raised up from his
death bed in answer to prayer and his life length-
ened out fifteen years, and other instances which
we have not space to refer to. These miracles of
healing were not confined to the opening of a dis-
pensation, but belonged to its entire history. In-
deed intercession for healing was a part of the
very ritual of Jewish worship and its answer a
part of God's explicit covenant with his people.
Hear Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the

36 THE TESTIMONY

Temple. " W/iatsoever sore, or whatsoever sickness
there be: then what prayer, or what supplication
soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy
people Israel, then hear Thou from heaven Thy
dwelling-place, and forgive."* And hear God's
promise in reference to this same matter. " I have
heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou
hast made before me : I have hallowed this house
to put my name there forever."! " If I shut up
heaven, or if I send pestilence among my people ;
if my people humble themselves, and pray, and seek
my face, and turn from their wicked ways ; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land."% Here is a broad promise
conditioned indeed by the repentance and faith of
the people of Israel, but fenced by no statute of limi-
tations, shutting up God's mercies within a certain
miraculous era. And we know from the history of
prophets and saints how constantly this promise
opened to the key of faith and poured forth its
treasures. This under the old covenant ! How
much greater things might we expect under the
new, after that the Lord had ascended up on high
and given gifts to men — the Comforter the great

• a Chron.|vi : 38-30.
t f Kings fall j. la Chron. vii : 1 j, 14.

OF SCRIPTURE. 37

est and supreme gift to abide perpetually in the
church ; and with him and through him, " miracles,
gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues."

It is comparatively easy indeed to credit miracles
in these olden times of patriarchs and prophets,
because of the enchantment of distance and the
halo of superior sanctity through which the men
of these times are seen. But antiquity has no
monopoly of God's gifts, and ancient men as such
had no entr&e into God's treasure house which is
denied to us. How very significantly James en.
forces the doctrine, "the effectual fervent prayer of
a righteous man availeth much." After the exhorta-
tion, " pray one for another that ye maybe healed" —
as though reading the thoughts which might come
into our minds, of the superior faith of prophets
and the higher privilege of apostles the Spirit adds,
" Elias was a man subject to like passions as we
are — " Not some privileged courtier of the King of
kings, not some high and titled chancellor of the
exchequer of heaven having rights of access and
intercourse with God of which we know nothing
— "and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain :
and it rained not on the earth for the space of

3* THE TESTIMONY

three years and six months, and he prayed again
and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought
forth her fruit." If he could shut and open heav-
en, not the less can you the children of to-day,
since he is a brother and kinsman in the same
bonds of frailty, and fear, and also a son and disci-
ple of "the same Lord over all who is rich unto all
that call upon him."

Such is the Spirit's practical enforcement of this
great promise of healing. How much we need to
ponder it ! How much we need to re-learn the truth,
that, though Christ who heard the cry of the suf-
fering and touched them with healing, has gone
far off "above all heavens," and ages have been add-
ed to his eternal years " whose goings forth have
been of old from everlasting," still "his hand is
not shortened that it cannot save ; neither is his
ear heavy that it cannot hear."

HI.

THE TESTIMONY OF REASON.

" Nowise contrary to scripture and very agreea
ble to reason ; " is the opinion with which Arch-
bishop Tillotson closes his observations on the
recurrence of Christian miracles in modern times.

It may be asked, what reason has to do with
such a question. Nothing except as corroborating
the testimony of faith. Miracles have not been
generally defended on the ground of their intrin-
sic reasonableness, but on that of their scriptu-
ral authority ; and that in us which first assents to
their reality is not so much the logical mind as the
docile heart — " the heart proffering itself by hu-
miliation to inspiration " as Pascal expresses it. And
yet we hold that to believe in miracles is reasona-
ble, after it is faithful. That supreme miracle, the
resurrection of our Lord was first credited and
published by loving and devoted believers ; but it
has since been defended again and again by Chris-
tian philosophers. So then, reason is not forbid-
den to look into the empty tomb and see the folded

40 THE TESTIMONY

grave clothes and therefrom to conclude that Christ
is risen, only she must be accompanied by faith and
not be surprised if faith like that " other disciple "
shall outrun her and come first to the sepul-
chre.*

Believing miracles to have existed in the days
of Christ and the Apostles, is it reasonable to
conclude that they may have continued to exist
until our own time ? It seems to us that it is.

For in the first place if they should cease they
would form quite a distinct exception to every
thing else which the Lord introduced by his
ministry. The doctrines which he promulgated
and which his apostles preached, atonement, justi-
fication, sanctification and redemption, have never
been abrogated or modified. The ordinances which
he enjoined, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, have
never been repealed. The divine operations in
the soul, which he ordained for man's recovery
from the fall, "the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost " have never been
suspended. These belong to the dispensation of
Grace which Jesus Christ introduced and which is
V> span the whole period between his first and his

•Jofanxx: 4-

OF REASON. 41

second advents. All orthodox Christians hold
them to be perpetual and unchangable.

And not only so, there was to be a development
of these doctrines and operations of Christianity
under the administration of the Spirit, so that the
stream which started with Christ's ministry was to
widen and deepen under the ministry of those who
should come after him. " I have many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now, how-
beit when he the Spirit of Truth is come, He will
guide you into all truth" — an enlargement of
knowledge and a development of doctrine under
the ministry of the Comforter rather than a de-
crease !

"Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and
greater works than these shall he do because I go
unto my Fathet — "* a reinforcement of power
for service rather than an abatement ! And all in-
telligent Christians admit that these promises were
fulfilled in the wider unfolding of truth and the
more extensive work of regeneration which have
occurred under the administration of the Spirit.

The law of Christianity is from less to greater,

•Johaxiv: 13-16-13.

43 THE TESr/AfOATr

and not from greater to less. " Of all that Jesus
began both to do and teach until the day in which
he was taken up" are the significant words with
which the Acts of the Apostles opens ; and as the
beginnings are less than the unfoldings, we may
conclude that the Lord was to do more through
the Spirit's ministry than through his own. And
so far as works of regeneration and salvation are
concerned this undoubtedly proved true and is
proving just as true to-day. The conversion of
three thousand souls in a single day under Peter's
preaching surpasses any thing which occurred in
the earthly ministry of Christ ; and the conversion
of ten thousand in a year on a single mission field
in India, also surpasses the results of any single
year in the Saviour's ministry.

Now as the " Works " of Christ are among the
things which He " began to do," miracles of heal-
ing stood side by side with miracles of regenera-
tion and therefore we say that the theory of the
" gradual cessation " of miracles contradicts all
analogy. We have read of certain South African
rivers which instead of beginning as tiny brooks
and flowing on deepening and widening as they go,
burst out from prolific springs and then become

OF REASON. 43

shallower and shallower as they flow on until they

are lost in the wastes of sand without ever reach-
ing the sea. Two streams of blessings started
from the personal ministry of our Lord, a stream
of healing and a stream of regeneration ; the one
for the recovery of the body and the other for the
recovery of the soul, and these two flowed on side
by side through the apostolic age. Is it quite rea-
sonable to suppose that the purpose of God was
that one should run on through the whole dispen-
sation of the Spirit and that the other should fade
away and utterly disappear within a single genera-
tion ? We cannot think so.

If miracles were abnormal manifestations of di-
vine power, against nature as well as above nature
they might indeed be expected to cease; for the
abnormal is not as a rule perpetual. The earth-
quakes and volcanoes, nature's agues and fever fits
are soon over ; but the sunshine and the rain, the
breezes and the blossoms, nature's tokens of health
are perennial. And miracles of healing are mani-
festations of nature's perfect health and wholeness,
lucid intervals granted to our deranged and suffer-
ing humanity. They are not catastrophes, but
exhibitions of that divine order which shall be

44 THE TESTIMONY

brought in when our redemption is completed. We
cannot for a moment admit the complaint of scep-
tics that miracles are an infraction of the laws of
nature. Alas ! for them that they have so lost their
ear for harmony that they cannot distinguish
earth's wail from Heaven's Alleluiah; and know
not the difference between the groans of a suffer-
ing creation and the music of the spheres, as it was
on that day when "the morning stars sung together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Mira-
cles of healing and dispossession are reminiscen-
ces of an unfallen Paradise and prophecies of a
Paradise regained. Though we call them super-
natural, they are not contranaturaL " For surely "
as one has said, " it is plainly contrary to nature
and indeed most unnatural that one should have
eyes and not see, ears and not hear, organs of
speech and not speak, and limbs without the power
to use them ; but not that a Saviour should come
and loose his fetters. It was contrary to nature
that ruthless death should sever the bands of love
which God himself has knit between mother and
son, between brother and sister but not that a
young man of Nain or a Lazarus should be released
from the fetters of death through a mighty word J

OF REASON. 45

And that was the climax of the unnatural that the
world should nail the only righteous one to the cross ;
but not that the holy bearer of that cross should
conquer undeserved death, should rise and victo-
riously enter into his glory."*

If then miracles of healing are exhibitions of
divine recovery and order in nature and not rude
irruptions of disorder, why having been once be-
gun should they entirely cease ? We are under the
dispensation of the Spirit which we hold to be an
unchangable dispensation so long as it shall con-
tinue. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit
was installed in office to abide in the church per-
petually. Exactly as the first disciples were under
the personal ministry of Christ we are under
the personal ministry of the Comforter. Having
begun his miracles at Cana of Galilee, Jesus never
permanently suspended them. His last gracious
act before he was delivered into the hands of wick-
ed men was to stretch forth his hand and heal the
ear of the high priest's servant. And having wrought
the first notable miracle after Pentecost by the
hand of Peter at " the Beautiful gate " why should
the Holy Ghost in a little while cease from his mi-

•Christlieb.

40 THE TESTIMONY

raculous works? We know that the Lord "did

not many mighty works " in a certain place " because
of their unbelief" and that the place where he was
thus hindered was " in his own country and in his
own house." But we know not that he would not
do mighty works in any place u faith were present ;
and were it not a simpler solution of this whole
question to say that possibly Christ through the
Holy Ghost will not do many miracles to-day on
account of man's unbelief, than to say that he wills
not to do them ?

Then again the use which was made of miracles
of healing as signs seems to argue strongly for
their permanency.

If the substance remains unchanged why should
the sign which was originally chosen to exhibit it
be superseded ?

It is said, indeed, with some show of reasonable-
ness, that Christianity being a spiritual system,
physical miracles were but the staging employed
for the erection of that system, destined to fall
away and disappear so soon as it should be com-
pleted. That certainly might be so. But how do
we regard the argument of those who have reason-
ed precisely thus about the ordinances of Christian-

OF REASON. 47

ity ? The Friends and other bodies of religionists
have said that the rites of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper are too physical to be perpetuated in con-
nection with a spiritual religion ; that whatever
place they may have had in the founding of
Christianity they are not demanded for its continu-
ance. To which we reply at once — first, that they
constitute a vivid sign and picture-writing of the
great foundation facts of Christianity, the death
and resurrection of our Lord ; that they are a
pledge and earnest of those great things to come
at the resurrection of the just and the marriage
supper of the Lamb, and that by the constant and
glowing appeal which they make to the senses,
they tend to keep these facts in perpetual remem-
brance ; and, secondly, that however we may rea-
son about it, these are ordinances, established for
continual observance by the Lord until he come,
and therefore we are forbidden to terminate them.
This reasoning would be accepted, doubtless, as
sound by all orthodox believers. But we can argue
in precisely the same way about the "signs" which
attested the first preaching of the Gospel. In the
great commission we have them solemnly estab.
lished as the accompaniments of preaching and

45 THE TESTIMONY

believing the Gospel. In James' epistle we find
healing recognized as an ordinance, just as in
Paul's epistles to the Romans and to the Corinthi-
ans we find Baptism and the Supper recognized as
ordinances. As signs they could never loose their
significance till the Lord comes again ; they pointed
upward and told the world that Christ who had
been crucified was alive and on the throne ; they
pointed forward and declared that he would come
again and subdue all things unto himseli This
last we believe to be the chief testimony of mira-
cles as signs : They were given to be witnesses to
the " restitution of all things " which Christ shall
accomplish at his coming and Kingdom. For
notice how invariably our Lord joins the command-
ment to heal the sick and to cast out devils with
the commission to preach the Kingdom, thus :
" Jesus went about preaching the Gospel of the
Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and
all manner of disease amongst the people." "And
as ye go preach, saying : the Kingdom of Heaven
is as hand. Heal the sick ; cleanse the lepers ;
raise the dead ; cast out devils." * Healing and
resurrection and the casting out of demons were a

* Matt. 4 : ij. Matt 10 : 7, read also Luke 9 : 1 and 10, 9,

OF REASON. 4Q

kind of first fruits of the Kingdom, to be present-
ed along with its announcement. As, to use a
familiar illustration, the commercial traveller car-
ries samples of his goods as he goes forth soliciting
trade, the Lord would have his ministers carry
specimens and tokens of the Kingdom in their
hands as they went forth to preach that Kingdom.*
This seems to be what is referred to in that
picture of the groaning creation which we find in
the eighth chapter of Romans : " But ourselves,
also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit even
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption to wit the redemption of the body." f
As though it were said : we have witnessed the
works of the Spirit in healing the body of its sick-
nesses, in dispossessing it of the evil spirit, in quick-

* " The devil is said to be he who has the power of death : he is the author of
death ; ha introduced sin into the world, and through sin death ; and as he is the
author of death, so he is the author of disease, which is just a form of death, and
which, as well as death, is the work of the devil. And, therefore, Jesus while he
was upon the earth healed the sick and raised the dead, not merely to typify a
spiritual healing and quickening, but to prove that he was indeed the promised
Deliverer by destroying the works of the devil, and also to give a fore-taste and a
shadow of the ultimate effect of his redemption upon the whole man, body and
soul. And thus we find in the New Testament that the healing of the sick and
the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom are almost always co-joined, and
are so spoken of as though they meant the same thing." — Thos Erskine; Bra-
zen Serpent, p. 272.

1 Romans 8 : 23.

jO THE TESTIMONY

cning it from the power of death ; and this make*
us long only the more for that crowning and con.
summated work of the Spirit, of which these
things are but an earnest ; when " he that raised
up Jesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." These
signs were the fore-tokens of the body's redemp-
tion which the Lord at the first bade his messengers
carry with them as they went forth preaching Jesus
and the resurrection. Even dumb, suffering nature
would be made glad by the sight of them. Goethe
beautifully says, " Often have I had the sensation
as if nature in wailing sadness entreated something
of me, so that not to understand what she longed
for cut me to the heart." But we understand what
she longs for, " For we know that the whole cre-
ation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of the body." And they who " have tasted the
powers of the world to come " were bidden to go
forth and preach the Kingdom, bearing in their
hands the grapes of Eschol, which they have
brought from that Kingdom, that they may show
what a goodly land that is where "The inhabitant
shall no more say I am sick." Thus, not only our

OF REASON. 51

wounded and pain-stricken humanity shall be
cheered with the hope of better things, but even
dumb nature shall be comforted by these fore-
gleams of that millennium wherein " the creature
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God." *

Now why, if these credentials were so rigidly
attached to the first preaching of the Kingdom,
should they utterly disappear from its later pro-
clamation ? There is the same groaning of cre-
ation to be answered ; the same coming of the King
to be announced ; the same unrepealed commission
of the Master to be carried out. The answer
given by the majority to this question is : "Signs
are no longer needed." If reason can be satisfied
with this answer, faith cannot. For "faith has
its reasons, which reason cannot understand."
Among these is this : " Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever." Miracles we hold

♦"Sickness is sin apparent in the body, the presentiment of death, the forerunner
of corruption. Disease of every kind is mortality begun. Now, as Christ came
to destroy death, and will yet redeem the body from the bondage of corruption, if
the Church is to have a first-fruits or earnest of this power it must be by receiving
power over diseases which are the first fruits and earnest of death."— Edward
Irving. Works. V. p. 464.

53 THE TESTIMONY

to be a shadow of good things to come. The good
thing to come for the soul is its full and perfect
sanctification at the appearing of the Lord. The
work of regeneration and daily renewal by the
Holy Ghost is the constant reminder and pledge
and preparation for that event ; and regeneration
is a "perpetual miracle." The good thing to come
for the body is " glorified corporeity," resurrection
and transformation into Christ's perfect likeness
when he shall appear. Healing by the power of
the Holy Ghost is the pledge and foretoken of this
consummation. Was it in God's purpose that we
should never again witness this after the apostolic
age was past ?

Here let us answer three or four objections
which have been urged against our position.
" If you insist that miracles of healing are possi-
ble in this age, then," it is said, "you must
logically admit that such miracles as raising the
dead, turning water into wine, and speaking in
unknown tongues are still possible." But it re-
quires only a casual glance to see that healing
through the prayer of faith stands on an entirely
different basis from any of these other miracles.

Raising the dead is no where promised as a

OF REASON. 53

privilege or possibility for the believers of to-day.
There is, indeed, in one instance, Matt, x : 8, a com-
mand to raise the dead ; but this was given specifi-
cally to the twelve and in a temporary commission.
It therefore differs very materially from the prom-
ise in Mark xvi, which was to all believers, and is
contained in a commission which was for the entire
dispensation of the Spirit. That the Lord did this
miracle, and that his apostles did it, in one or two
instances is not enough. Unless we can show some
specific promise given to the church as a whole we
are bound to concede that such works are not for
us or for our age. Healing the sick, on the con-
trary, rests on a distinct and specific promise to
believers.

Miracles on external nature, like the turning of
water into wine, and the multiplying of the loaves,
belong exclusively to the Lord ; we do not find
them perpetuated beyond his own ministry either
in fact or in promise. Miracles of cure, on the
contrary, being in the direct line of the Lord's
redemptive work, abound in the ministry of the
disciples as they do in that of the Lord, and have
the clear pledge of scripture for their performance.
The discrimination which Godet makes between

54 THE TESTIMONY

miracles of healing and those performed on the
outward world we believe to be strictly accurate.
He says : " One consequence of the close connec*
tion of soul and body is that when the spirit of
man is in this way vivified by the power of God it
can sometimes exert upon the body, and through
it upon other bodies, an influence which is marvel-
lous. This kind of miracle is therefore possible in
every age of the Church's history ; it was possible in
the middle ages, and is possible still. That which
would seem to be no longer possible is the miracu-
lous action of the divine power upon external
nature. The age of such miracles seems to have
closed with the work of revelation, of which they
were but the auxiliaries." *

As to miracles of prophecy, we see no reason to
believe that they were strictly limited to apostolic
times. We recall, indeed the one important text
on this question, " But whether there be prophe-
cies, they shall fail ; whether there be tongues they
shall cease ; whether there be knowledge it shall
vanish away ; for we know in part, and we proph-
ecy in part, but when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away."

•Defence of the Christian Fahh, p ao&

OF REASON. 5J

Thus speaks the Spirit in the Epistle to the Cor-
inthians.

By this scripture some have attempted to shut
up all miracles within the apostolic era as belong-
ing to the things which were " in part," and there-
fore destined to pass away. But, in the first place,
let it be noted that it is only prophecies, tongues
and knowledge that are specified, not healings.
And we are to put no more within this limitation
than the word of God has put there. And, in the
second place, the bounds set to the exercise of
these gifts is " when that which is pet feet is come"
which scholarship has generally held to mean, when
the Lord himself shall return to earth.* The gifts
of tongues and of prophecy therefore do not seem
to be confined within the first age of the church.
We cannot forget, indeed that the utterances of
prophecy and knowledge culminated and found their
highest expression when the Canon of the New Tes-
tament Scriptures was completed ; so that some
thoughtful expositors have conjectured that this may
have been the coming of that which is perfect so far
as prophecy and knowledge are concerned. But in

* i Cor. i j : to. " This verse shows by the emphatic then that the time when
Jhc gifts shall cease is the end of this dispensation. The imperfect shall netceaee
•SI! the perfect is brought in." —EMcott.

j6 THE TESTIMONY

either event this does not touch the gifts of heat
ing. These cannot have culminated so long as
sickness and demoniacal possession are unchecked
in the world ; nor until the great Healer and Re-
storer shall return from above.

To sum up these observations then ; is it reason-
able to conclude that the office of healing through
faith, resting on the same apostolic example, and
held by the same tenure of divine promise and
precept as the other functions of the Christian
ministry, was alone destined to pass away and
disappear within a single generation? With the
advance in power and knowledge which was to take
place under the administration of the Holy Spirit
after Pentecost, is it reasonable to believe that
in this one particular instance there was designed
to be a signal retarding of supernatural energy ?
Is the Lord less likely to heal those who extend to
him the touch of faith now that he is on the right
hand of God,* having all power in heaven and

•" Is the truce broke ? or cause we have

A Mediatour now with thee,
Dost thou therefore old treatyes wave,
And by appeales from him decree ?

Or is 't so, as some green heads say,

That now all miracles must cease?
Though thou hast promised they should stay

The tokens of the Church, and peace."

— U—nt VaqgiaM, 1654.

OF REASOM $7

earth given to him, than he was while on earth ?
Is it reasonable to believe that the administration
of the Comforter has changed since its first in-
auguration, so that, while his mission and his offices
were to continue till the end of this age, it is found
that one of his ministries has entirely disappeared
since the days of the apostles ? With sin and sick-
ness still holding sway in the world, is it reasonable
to consider the latter as entirely beyond the re-
demptive work of Christ, while the former is so
entirely met by that work, which was not the case
in the beginning ? And, finally, until the harvest
shall come, is it reasonable to suppose that we are
to be left entirely without the first fruits of our
redemption ? Until we can answer these questions,
perhaps caution is becoming us, at least, in deny
ing that miracles of healing are still wrought

IV.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.

u Witnesses who are above suspicion leave no
room for doubt that the miraculous powers of the
apostolic age continued to operate at least into the
third century." Such is the conclusion of Dr.
Gerhard Uhlhorn ; and one who has read the work
from which this opinion is taken will not doubt his
eminent fitness to judge of such a question.* This
concession is a very important one in its bearings
on this whole subject. Prove that Miracles were
wrought, for example, in the second century after
Christ, and no reason can be thereafter urged why
they might not be wrought in the nineteenth cen*
tury. The apostolic age, it must be admitted, was a
peculiarly favored one. So long as the men were
still living who had seen the Lord, and had com.
panied with him during his earthly ministry, there
were possible secrets of power in their possession
that a later generation might not have. It is

* CnaAia of Christianity with Hcathcru«m, p. 169.

OF THE CHURCH. 59

easy to see, therefore, that this period might be
especially distinguished by the gifts of the Spirit.

And yet the Saviour seems to be careful to teaoh
that there would be an augmenting rather than a
diminishing of supernatural energy after his de-
parture. " But ye shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost is come upon you." "Verily,
verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me the
vvorks that I do shall he do also, and greater
works than these shall he do ; because I go to my
Father." * He made no provision for the arrest of,
the stream of divine manifestations which he had
started, either in the next age or in a subsequent
age. But, conceding certain marked advantages
possessed by the immediate followers of Christ, if
we find in history that there is no abrupt termina-
tion of miracles with the expiration of the apos-
tolic age, then we must begin to raise the question
why there should be any termination at all, so
long as the Church remains, and the ministry of
the Spirit is perpetuated ?

Now, when we turn to the writings of the
Christian Fathers, as they are called, we find
the testimonies abundant to the continuance of

* Acts 1-9. John 14 : 12.

60 THE TEST/AfOATV

the miraculous powers. We will quote only a few

as specimens from a large number, which may be

readily collated by any one who will take the

pains. Justin Martyr says :

" For numberless demoniacs throughout the
whole world and in your city, many of our Christ-
ian men, exorcising them m the name of Jesus
Christ, who was crucified under Pontias Pilate,
have healed, and do heal, rendering helpless and
driving the possessing devils out of the men,
though they could not be cured by all the other
exorcists and those who used incantations and
drugs." *

Irenaeus says :

"Wherefore also those who are in truth the
disciples receiving grace from him do in his name
perform miracles so as to promote the welfare of
others, according to the gift which each has re-
ceived from him."

Then after enumerating the various gifts he con

tinues :

" Others still heal the sick by laying their hands
upon them, and they are made whole." t

Tertullian says :

" For the clerk of one of them who was liable
to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit
was set free from his affliction, as was also the
relative of another, and the little boy of a third.

* Apol. ii. Chap. 6.
t Adv. Hacr Book u : 4.

OF THE CHURCH 6l

And how many men of rank, to say nothing of the
common people, have been delivered from devils
and healed of disease?*

Origen says :

"And some give evidence of their having re-
ceived through their faith a marvellous power by
the cures which they perform, invoking no other
name over those who need their help than that of
the God of all things and of Jesus, along with a
mention of his history. For by these means we
too have seen many persons freed from grievous
calamities and from distractions of mind and mad-
ness, and countless other ills which could be cured
neither by men or devils, "f

Clement says, in giving directions for visiting

the sick and afflicted :

" Let them, therefore, with fasting and prayer,
make their intercessions, and not with the well
arranged and fitly ordered words of learning, but
as men who liave received the gift of healing con-
fidently, to the glory of God."%

The weight of these and like testimonies is so

generally acknowledged by Church historians that

it seems little less than hardihood for scholars to

go on repeating that well worn phrase " the age

of miracles ended with the apostles." Mesheim,

speaking of the fourth century, says :

* Ad. Scap. iv ; 4.

* Contra Celsum B. ill. Chap. 14. t Epis. C. xu.

^2 THE TESTIMONY

" But I cannot on the other hand assent to the
opinion of those who maintain that in this century
miracles had entirely ceased." *

Dr. Waterland says : " The miraculous gifts
continued through the third century, at least." f

Dodwell declares that " though they generally
ceased with the third century, there are several
strongly attested cases in the fourth."

Dr. Marshall, the translator of Cyprian, says
" there are successive evidences of them down to
the age of Constantine."

" The age of Constantine" % is a significant date at
which to fix the termination of miracles. Foralmost
all Church historians hold that there was a period
when the simpler and purer forms of supernatural
manifestation ceased to be generally recognized, or
were supplanted by the gross and spurious type
which characterize the Church of the middle ages.
And th«era of Constantine's conversion confessedly

• Cent iv.

t See list of citation* in " Crtaiitn and Redemption" London, 1877. P. 50.

% " With regard to the continuance of miracles after the apostolic age, we have
testimonies, not only from TerttiMian and Origen, who tell us that many in their
time wore convinced, againut their will, of the truths of Christianity by miraculous
visions, but, also, much later from Theodore of Mopsueste (429). The latter
says : Many heathen amongst us air being healed by Chrirtians from whatever
sickness they have, so abundant are miracles in our midst." Christlieb : Modem
Woubt, p. Til.

OF THE CHURCH. 63

marks a decided transition from a purer to a more
degenerate and worldly Christianity. From this
period on, we find the Church ceasing to depend
wholly on the Lord in heaven, and to rest in the
patronage and support of earthly rulers ; and ceasing
to look ever for the coming and Kingdom of Christ
as the consummation of her hopes, and to exult
in her present triumph and worldly splendor.
Many of her preachers made bold to declare that
the Kingdom had come, and that the prophetic
word, " He shall have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth " had
been fulfilled.*

If now, as we have indicated elsewhere, the
miracles were signs of the sole kingship of the
living and exalted Christ, and pledges of his com-
ing again to subdue all things to himself, it is not
strange that as the substance of these truths
faded from mens minds, their sign should have
gradually disappeared also. At all events it is
very significant that precisely the same period, the
first three centuries, is that generally named by
historians as the era in which that apostolic hope,
" the glorious appearing of the great God and our

* Eusebius l. x. 3, 4.

64 THE TESTIMONY

Saviour, Jesus Christ," and that apostolic faith,
" they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall
recover," remained in general exercise. It is not
altogether strange, therefore, that when the Church
forgot that " her citizenship is in heaven," and
began to establish herself in luxury and splendor
on earth, she should cease to exhibit the super-
natural gifts of heaven. And there is a grim
irony in the fact, that after death and the grave
had gradually become the goal of the Christian's
hope, instead of the personal coming of Christ,
then we should begin to find miracles of healing
alleged by means of contact with the bones of
dead saints and martyrs, instead of miracles of
healing through the prayer of faith offered to the
living Christ. Such is the change introduced by
the age of Constantine.*

But now comes a most suggestive fact ; that
whenever we find a revival of primitive faith and
apostolic simplicity there we find a profession of
the chaste and evangelical miracles which character-
ized the apostolic age. These attend the cradle of

• " Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealth v pope received of thee."

— DanU.

OF THE CHURCH. 65

every spiritual reformation, as they did the birth

of the Church herself. Waldenses, Moravians,

Huguenots, Covenanters, Friends, Baptists and

Methodists all have their record of them.

Hear the following frank and simple confession of

the Waldenses, that people who for so many ages

kept the virgin's lamp trimmed and burning amid

the gross darkness with which the Papal harlot had

overspread the people :

" Therefore, concerning this anointing of the
sick, we hold it as an article of faith, and profess
sincerely from the heart that sick persons, when
they ask it, may lawfully be anointed with the
anointing oil by one who joins with them in pray-
ing that it may be efficacious to the healing of the
body according to the design and end and effect
mentioned by the apostles ; and we profess that
such an anointing performed according to the
apostolic design and practice will be healing and
profitable.*

Then after condemning extreme unction, that

sacrament of the Papists wherein an ordinance for

life is perverted into an ordinance for death, they

say further :

" Albeit we confess that the anointing of the
sick performed according to the design, end and
purpose of the apostles, and according to their
practice and power of which St. Mark and James

• Johannis Lukawitz Waldensis Confessio 1431. See also Waldensia, p. 25.

66 THE TESTIMONY

make mention, is lawful ; and if any priest possess
ing the grace of healings had so anointed the sick
md they have recovered we would exhort all that
when they are really ill they omit not to receive
that ordinance at their hands, and in no way
despise it, because despisers of that or of other
ordinances, so far as they are ordained by Christ,
are to be punished and corrected, according to the
rules of the evangelical law."

The Moravians, or United Brethren as they are
otherwise called, have obtained a good report
among all Christians for their simple piety, and
especially for their fervent missionary zeal. They
have not only been earnest reformers, but reform-
ers of reformers ; so that such men as Wesley,
catching their light and getting kindled by it, have
brought a new revival to the backslidden children
of the Reformation. On principles already referred
to, we might expect to find their missionary zeal
signalized by supernatural tokens. And so it has
been, if we may believe what seems to be trust-
worthy records. In what is regarded as a very
faithful history of the United Brethren, that of
Rev. A. Bost, the author gives his own view of the
continuance of the apostolic gifts in a very clear
manner, and records for us with equal clearness
the sentiments of the Moravians. He says :

" We are, indeed, well aware that, so far from its

OF THE CHURCH. 67

being possible to prove by scripture, or by experi-
ence, that visions and dreams, the gift of miracles,
healings and other extraordinary gifts, have abso-
lutely ceased in Christendom since the apostolic
times, it is on the contrary proved, both by facts
and by scripture, that there may always be these
gifts where there is faith, and that they will never
be entirely detached from it. We need only take
care to discern the true from the false, and to dis-
tinguish from miracles proceeding from the Holy
Ghost, lying miracles, or those which without be*
ing so decidedly of the devil do not so decidedly
indicate the presence of the Lord." *

In this book are several statements of the

Brethren concerning the character and discipline

of their churches. The famous Zinzendorf writes

as follows :

" To believe against hope is the root of the gift
of miracles ; and I owe this testimony to our be-
loved Church, that apostolic powers are there
manifested. We have had undeniable proofs there-
of in the unequivocal discovery of things, persons,
and circumstances, which could not humanly have
bee a discovered, in the healing of maladies in
themselves incurable, such as cancers, consumptions,
when the patient was in the agonies of death, &c,
all by means of prayer, or of a single word." f

Speaking of the year 1730, he says :

" At this juncture various supernatural gifts

* Bost 1, p. 17
t Idem, p. hi.

68 THE TESTIMONY

were manifested in the Churek, and miraculous
cures were wrought. The brethren and sisters
believed what the Saviour had said respecting the
efficacy of prayer ; and when any object strongly
interested them they used to speak to him about
it, and to trust in him as capable of all good ; then
it was done unto them according to their faith.
The count (Zinzendorf) rejoiced at it with all his
heart, and silently praised the Saviour who thus
willingly condescended to what is poor and little.
In this freedom of the brethren towards our Sav-
iour, Jesus Christ, he recognized a fruit of the
Spirit, concerning which they ought on no account
to make themselves uneasy, whoever it might be,
but rather to respect him. At the same time he did
not wish the brethren and sisters to make too
much noise about these matters, and regard them
as extraordinary but when, for example, a brother
was cured of disease, even of the worst kind, by a
single word or by some prayer, he viewed this as a
very simple matter, calling to mind, ever that say-
ing of scripture, that signs were not for those who
believed, but for those who believed not." *

Thus we have the sentiment of the Moravians
on the subject of Miracles very distinctly indicated.
And the statements quite accord with their simple
faith and filial confidence in the Lord, as indicated
in other things.

The following furnishes a very beautiful glimpse
into the actual miraculous experiences above re
ferred to :

OF THE CHURCH 69

"Jean de Wattcville had a childlike confidence
in our Saviour's promise to hear his children's pray-
ers. Of this he often had experience. One ex-
ample we will here offer : — A married sister be-
came extremely ill at Hernnhut. The physician
had given up all hopes, and her husband was
plunged in grief. Watteville visited the patient,
found her joyfully expecting her removal, and took
his leave, after having encouraged her in this happy
frame. It was at that time still the custom of
unmarried brethren, on Sunday evening, to go
about singing hymns before the brethren's houses,
with an instrumental accompaniment. Watteville
made them sing some appropriate hymns under
the window of the sick sister, at the same time
praying in his heart to the Lord that he would be
pleased, if he thought good, to restore her to
health. He conceived a hope of this so full of
sweetness and faith that he sang with confidence
these lines :

' Sacred Cross, oh sacred Cross !

Where my Saviour died for me,
From my soul, redeemed from loss,

Bursts a flame of love to thee.

When I reach my dying hour

Only let them speak thy name ;
By its all prevailing power

Back my voice returns again.'

What was the astonishment of those who sur-
rounded the bed of this dying sister when they
saw her sit up, and join with a tone of animation
in singing the last line :

4 Back my voice returns again.*

To his great amazement and delight he found

J© THE TESTIMONY

her, on ascending to her chamber, quite well. She
recovered perfectly, and not till thirty-five years
after did he attend her earthly tabernacle to its
final resting place."

And now we come to the testimony of that most
illustrious band of Christian worthies, the Scotch
Covenanters. Illustrious, we said, and yet with |
light altogether ancient, apostolic and strange to
our modern age. Let one read that book of thril-
ling religious adventure and heroic faith, " The
Scots Worthies" and he will almost seem to be
perusing the acts of the apostles reacted. Such
sterling fortitude ; such mighty prayers ; such con
quests of preaching and intercession ! Howie, its
author, seems to have had in mind especially, in
writing it, the rebuke it would bring to a later,
faithless and degenerate age, by showing, as he
says in his preface, "how at the peril of their
lives they brought Christ into our hands," and
" how quickly their offspring are gone out of the
way piping and dancing after a golden calf." Nor
did he think such a luxurious and unbelieving gen-
eration would be able to credit these mighty deeds
of their fathers. For he continues : " Some may
be ready to object that many things related in this
collection smell too much of enthusiasm ; and that

OF THE CHURCH. J\

other things are beyond all credit. But these we
must suppose t< be either quite ignorant of what
the Lord did for our forefathers in former times,
or else, in a great measure, destitute of the like
gracious influences of the Spirit by which they
were actuated and sustained." If we are inclined
to discredit the marvels of divine interposition
recorded in this book, we have to remember that
the men who relate them, and of whom they are
related, are the historic characters of the Scottish
Kirk; Knox, Wishart, Livingston, Welch, Baillie,
?eden and Craig. We never tire of repeating the
great and holy things which these men did in other
fields of spiritual service. Who has not heard how
John Livingston preached with such extraordinary
demonstration of the Spirit that five hundred souls
were quickened or converted under a single ser-
mon ? And what Christian has not had his spirit-
ual indolence rebuked by reading of John Welch,
nsing many times in the night to plead for his
fiock, and spending seven and eight hours a day in
Gethsemane intercessions for the Church and for
lost souls. These things we have read and repeat-
ed without incredulity. But how few have read
or dared to repeat the story of the same John Welch

72 THE TESTmOJVY

praying over the body of a young man, who, after a
long wasting sickness, " has closed his eyes and
expired to the apprehension of all spectators ; "
how, in spite of the remonstrance of friends, he
held on for three hours, twelve hours, twenty-five,
thirty-six, forty-eight hours, and when at last it was
insisted that the " cold dead " body should be
borne out to burial, how he begged for an hour
more, and how, at the end of that time, he " called
upon his friends and showed them the dead young
man restored to life again, to their great astonish-
ment." All this is told with the utmost detail in
the book of " Scots Worthies." If we are startled
to ask in amazement — as who will not be — " Are
such things possible in modern times ? " we might
better begin with the question, has such praying
and resistless importunity with God ever been
heard of in modern times? If we can get a
miraculous faith the miraculous works will be easy
enough to credit. Yet this is a specimen of the
men who compose this extraordinary group of
Christian heroes.

The wonders recorded of them are of every
kind — marvels of courage, marvels of faith, mar-
vels of martyrdom, and marvels of prophetic fore*

OF THE CHURCH. 73

sight. Theirs was a faith born and nourished of

the bitterest persecution. But if, according to the
saying of their biographer, they were "followed
by the prophet's shadow, the hatred of wicked
men," it is equally true that they were crowned
with the apostle's halo, the power of the Holy
Spirit.

Here we read of the holy Robert Bruce, of
whom the beautiful incident is told, that once being
late in appearing in his pulpit a messenger was sent
for him who reported : " I think he will not come
to-day, for I overheard him say to another : 'I protest
I will not go unless thou goest with me* Howbeit,
in a little time he came, accompanied by no man
but full of the blessing of Christ ; for his speech
was with much evidence and demonstration of the
Spirit." Of this man, mighty in pulpit prayers, it
is affirmed that "persons distracted, and those
who were past recovery with falling sickness, were
brought to him and were, after prayer by him on
their behalf, fully restored from their malady."*
Also we read of Patrick Simpson, whose insane
wife, from raving and blaspheming as with demon-
iacal possession, was so wonderfully healed by his

74 THE TESTIMONY

importunate prayers that the event was found thus
gratefully recorded upon some of the books of his
library : " Remember, O my soul, and never forget
the 16th of August, 1601, what consolation the
Lord gave thee, and how he performed what he
spoke according to Zechariah, 'is not this a brand
tlucked oU of the fire* " *

We give verbatim one incident of healing as
recorded in this book, admonishing the reader that
this story, as well as several others, has been some-
what softened in later editions of the work, with
the avowed purpose of making it accord more ex-
actly with modern religious sentiments. It is from
the life of John Scrimgeour, minister of Kinghorn
in Fife, and " an eminent wrestler with God : "

"Mr. Scrimgeour had several friends and chil-
dren taken away by death : and his only daughter
who at that time survived, and whom he dearly
loved, being seized with the King's evil, by which
she was reduced to the point of death, so that he
was called up to see her die ; and finding her in
this condition he went out into the fields, (as he
himself told) in the night-time in great grief and
anxiety, and began to expostulate with the Lord,
with such expressions as for all the world, he durst
not again uttvf. In a fit of displeasure he said —
'thou O Lord know^st that I have Leen serving
thee in the uprightness of my heart according t"

OF THE CHURCH. 75

my power and measure : nor have I stood in awe
to declare thy mind even unto the greatest in the
time ; and thou seest that I take pleasure in this
child. O that I could obtain such a thing at thy
hand as to spare her ! ' and being in great agony of
spirit at last it was said to him from the Lord —
1 1 have heard thee at this time, but use not the
like boldness in time coming for such particulais.'
When he came home the child was recovered,
and sitting up in the bed took some meat : and
when he looked on her arm it was perfectly
whole."*

Now when we reflect that these things are re-
corded by the pen of some of the holiest men the
church of God has ever seen : and recorded too as
the experiences of their own ministry of faith and
prayer, the fact must at least furnish food for re-
flection to those who continue to assert with such
confident assurance that the age of miracles is
past. Past it may be indeed, if the age of faith is
past. For that we conceive, to be the real ques-
tion. It is not geography or chronology that de-
termines the boundary lines of the supernatural.
It is apostolic men that make an apostolic age, not
a certain date of Anno Domini. We are forever
thinking to turn back the shadow certain degree?
upon the dial, to bring again the age of miracles

* Edinburgh Ed. 1812, p. 89, #>.

76 THE TESTIMONY

forgetting that he who is " without variableness or
the shadow of turning" has said, "if thou canst
believe" — not if thou wast born in Palestine and
within the early limits of the first Christian cen-
tury— "all things are possible to him that believeth."
When by the stress of violent persecution or by
the sore discipline of reproach and rejection by
the world the old faith is revived, then we catch
glimpses once more of the apostolic age. And
such perhaps beyond all others in modern times
was the age of the Covenanters.

No one can read this stirring narrative of their
sufferings and triumphs, their martyrdoms and mira-
cles without a profound spiritual quickening. There
is little danger withal of the book ministering to
fanaticism, for if any one should be inspired by it
with an ambition to be a miracle-worker he will
meet the challenge on every page — " Are ye able
to drink the cup that I drink of, and to be bap-
tized with the baptism that I am baptized with ?"

If we come to the Huguenots, those faithful
followers of the Lamb, among generations that were
so greedily and wantonly following the Dragon, we
get glimpses of the same wonderful things. In
the story of their suffering and obedience to the

OF THE CHURCH. 77

faith in the mountains of Cevennes whither they
had fled from their pursuers upon the revocation of
the edict of Nantz, we hear constant mention of
the exercise of miraculous gifts. There were
divine healings and extraordinary actings of the
Spirit in quickening and inspiration. They who in
their exile carried their mechanical arts and inven-
tions into England to the great blessing of the
nation, carried here and there the lost arts of su-
pernatural healing to the wonder of the church of
Christ.*

Among the early Friends, as is well known the
same manifestations were constantly reported.
Whatever we may think of the general teaching of
this sect, no one can read the Journal of George
Fox without feeling that he was a devoted man of
God, doing a wholesome work of quickening and
rebuke in a time of great spiritual deadness and
conformity to the world. His quaint prayer that
he " might be baptized into a sense of all conditions"
seems to have been literally fulfilled. Like a latter
day apostle he went among all ranks, rebuking the
gay and worldly, turning away the wrath of those
at enmity, visiting the sick and ministering to the

* Morning Watch, B. iv : p. 383.

78 THE TESTIMONY

prisoner. A worthy model is he for any minister,
in any age who would learn how to labor " in sea-
son out of season" for the Lord.

Not only in his teaching but especially in his
active service does he recognize the continuous
operation of the Spirit in miraculous ministries.
He records these manifestations without comment
as though they were as much a matter of course
as conversion or regeneration.

In a record of evangelizing in Twy-cross in Lin

colnshire, England, he says: —

" Now there was in that town a great man thai
had long lain sick and was given over by the phy-
sicians : and some friends in that town desired me
to go and see him, and I went up to him in his
chamber and spoke the word of life to him and was
moved to pray for him, and the Lord was entreated
and restored him to health."*

While preaching in Hertfordshire, they told him

of a sick woman and requested him to go to her

help. He says : —

"John Rush of Bedfordshire went along with me
to visit her, and when we came in, there were many
people in the house that were tender about her :
and they told me she was not a woman for this
world, but if I had anything to comfort her con-
cerning the world to come I might speak to her.
So I was moved of the Lord to speak to her, and

• Journal B. i : p. ill.

OP THE CHURCH. 79

the Lord raised her up again to the astonishment
of the town and country. '*

This book abounds in such instances, told with-
out ostentation or enlargement, but almost always
alluded to as " Miracles."

In the earlier days of the Baptists, days of sim-
plicity and purity, we meet with similar illustrations
of miraculous faith and manifestation. As usual
it was in times of great straits, when the prison
doors were shut upon the persecuted flock, that
the windows of heaven were opened in miraculous
blessing.

Vavasor Powell, "the morning star of the Welch
Baptists" as he has been named, has left a clear
affidavit to his faith and practice on the subject
we are considering. He was a man of the same
fibre as the Covenanters ; endued with such power
of the Spirit that extraordinary revivals followed
his preaching wherever he went. He was also a
bitter sufferer for the faith having in the course of
his life lain in thirteen different prisons for his
testimony for Christ.

Besides the uncommon blessing which attended
his preaching it is recorded that "many persons

* Id. vol. t : p. a8i.

80 THE TESTIMONY

were recovered from dangerous sickness through
the prayer of faith which he offered." He took
the promise in James vth, literally, as shown in
the story of his own recovery, and especially as de-
clared in the following article of his creed — " Vis-
iting the sick and for the elders to anoint them in
the name of the Lord is a gospel ordinance and not
repealed."* That his creed was to some extent
adopted by the English Baptists appears from the
account given in the same book, of the ceremony
of anointing and prayer as performed for a blind
woman at Aldgate in London. Rev. Hansard
Knollys, and Rev. Henry Jessey, eminent names
in the early ministry of the body, united with oth-
ers in the service, prayer being offered and the
words pronounced, " the Lord Jesus restore thee
thy sight."!

Among the Methodists we find references here
and there to the appearance of miraculous mani-
festations in the churches. There is one very
striking instance which is recorded of Ann Mather,
daughter of Joseph Benson the Methodist Com-
mentator, the story being given in full by the fa

• Ivuny's History of the Baptists, pp. J33.
t Idem, p. 3jj.

OF THE CHURCH. 8l

ther in his journal. She had been afflicted with

lameness in the feet, for some years having no use

of her limbs, and not for a long time having walked

a step. We give the narrative in the words of

Mr. Benson's Journal abridging in unimportant

details : —

"Oct. 4th. This evening the Lord has shown
us an extraordinary instance of his love and power.
My dear Ann yet remained without any use of
either her limbs and indeed without the least feel-
ing of them, or ability to walk a step, or lay the
\east weight upon them, nor had she any use of
them for upward of twelve months. I was very
much afraid that the sinews would be contracted,
and that she would lose the use of them forever.
We prayed however, incessantly, that this might
not be the case ; but that it would please the Lord,
for the sake of her three little children, to restore
her.

This day a part of my family and some of my
pious friends went to take tea at her house ; Mr.
Mather bringing her down in his arms into the
dining-room. After tea I spoke of the certainty
of God's hearing the prayer of his faithful people,
and repeated many of his promises to that pur-
pose. I also enlarged on Christ's being the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever, and still both able
and willing to give relief to his afflicted people :
that though he had doubtless done many of his
miracles of healing chiefly to prove himself to be
the Messiah, yet that he did not do them for that end
only, but also to grant relief to human misery, out

$2 THE TESTIMOJW

of his great compassion for suffering mankind;
and that not a few of his other miracles of mercy
he had wrought principally or only for this latter
purpose, and that he was still full of compassion
for the miserable. I then said, "Ann, before we
go to prayer, we will sing the Hymn which was
full of consolation to your mother," and I gave out
the words of the hymn beginning : —

" Thy arm, Lord, is not shortened now,
It wants not now the power to save ;
Still present with thy people, thou, etc*'

After singing, we then kneeled down to pray,
and Ann took her infant child to give it the breast,
that it might not disturb us with crying while we
were engaged in prayer. I prayed first, and then
Mr. McDonald ; all the company joining fer-
vently in our supplications. We pleaded in prayer
the Lord's promises, and especially that he has
said that whatever two or three of his people
should agree to ask, it should be done for them.
Matt, xvii: 19. Immediately on our rising from
our knees, Ann beckoned to the nurse to take the
child, and then instantly rose up, and said, " I can
walk, I feel I can ; and proceeded half over the
room : when her husband, afraid she should fall,
stepped to her, saying, " my dear Ann, what are
you about ? "

She put him off with her hands, saying, " I don't
need you : I can walk alone," and then walked
three times over the floor ; after which, going to
a corner, she knelt down and said, "Oh let us give
God thanks ! " we kneeled down, and gave thanks ;
Ann continuing on her knees all the time, at least
twenty minutes ; she then came to me, and with a
flood of tears threw her arms about my neck,

OF THE CHURCH. 83

and then did the same first to one of her sisters,
and to the other, and afterwards to Mrs. Dicken-
son; every one in the room shedding tears of
gratitude and joy. She then desired her husband's
brother to come up stairs ; and when he entered
the room, she cried out, " Adam, I can walk ; " and
to show him that she could, immediately walked
over the floor, and back again.

It was, indeed, the most affecting scene I ever
witnessed in my life. She afterward, without any
help, walked up stairs into her lodging room, and
with her husband kneeling down, joined in prayer
and praise.

In conversation with her afterward, I learned
from her the following particulars: — that when
she was brought into the dining-rcom a little stool
was put under her feet, but which she felt no more
than if her feet had been dead. While we were
singing the hymn, she conceived faith that the
Lord would heal her ; began to feel the stool, and
pushed it away ; then set her feet on the floor,
and felt that; while we prayed she felt a persuasion
she could walk, and felt inclined to rise up with
the child in her arms ; but thinking to do that
would be thought rash, she delayed till we had
done praying, and then immediately rose up, and
walked as above related."

Among the persons present who witnessed this
Remarkable scene was Rev. James McDonald, who
followed Mr. Benson in prayer and was afterwards
his biographer, and in making reference to this won-
derful healing he says : " All believed that the
power to walk, which she received in an instant

84 THE TESTIMONY

was communicated by an immediate act of omnip-
otence." The account was also published in the
London Methodist Magazine, from which this is
quoted.

We have thus set before us as a mass of evidence
for the continuance of miraculous interventions
which few, we imagine, would wish to condemn as
utterly false. Whatever deduction or allowance
any may wish to make, there remains too solid a
substratum of well-proven fact to be easily set
aside. Untimely — born out of due season, is the
objection which will at once be urged indeed.
That is to say, put the same facts and the same
witnesses back into the age of the apostles and
5iey can be easily enough credited, but not as
speaking for modern times. But some believe that
the church like the tree of life ** whose leaves are
for the healing of the nations," not only bears
twelve manner of fruits but "yields her fruit every
month." "All supernatural manifestations deter-
mined with apostolic times and apostolic men " —
so I read from a learned author, as I glanced for a
moment from the page which I was writing. Then
casting another glance through my window I saw
a tree just before me crowned with a fresh coat of

Of THE CHURCH. 85

green leaves and white blossoms. Strange sight
to witness in the month of October! Yet such
was the season in which it came to pass. For it
had happened that the canker worms had strip-
ped the tree of all its foliage and left it bare and
naked ; but because there was life in its veins and
the sap had not yet returned downward, it must
find expression, and so even in autumn it had
leaved and blossomed.

Alas that the church should ever have been
shorn of her primitive beauty ! But so it was :
apostacy succeeding to purity, and papacy to apos-
tacy, and corruption to papacy, and infidelity to
corruption, till it was literally as the prophet has
written : " That which the palmer-worm hath left
hath the locust eaten ; and that which the locust
hath left, hath the canker-worm eaten, and that
which the canker-worm hath left, hath the cater-
pillar eaten."*

But because there is life still remaining in the
church, because the sap has not utterly departed
from the tree of God, fresh shoots are constantly
putting out bearing the leaves and blossoms of
primitive piety, and not less certainly the rich

86 THE TESTIMONY

fruits of miraculous blessing. And so we are per
suaded it shall be until the end. For it belongs to
the Church as the body of Christ to do the works
of Christ and it belongs to believers as the habi
tation of the Spirit to manifest the gifts and fruits
of the Spirit.

THE TESTIMONY OF THEOLOGIANS.

Admitting, with the historians, that miracles
ceased to be recognized in the Church, as a whole,
after the third century, there have still continued
to be witnesses here and there to their occurrence
through all the ages. We call to the stand several
theologians, who have not only defended the doc-
trine of the continuance of miracles, but have
cited illustrations of what they regarded as credi-
ble instances in support of their theory.

Augustine, it has been claimed, denied the exist-
ence of miraculous interpositions in his day ; and he
certainly said some things that give occasion for that
opinion. But, on the other hand, he has left on
record what cannot but be regarded as the strong-
est testimony to their continuance in his genera-
tion. Archbishop Trench considers that the true
solution of this seeming contradiction is, that he
held to their cessation in his earlier writings, and,
changing his opinion, maintained their continu-

88 THE TESTIMONY

ance in his later.* If this be so, we must take
the last opinion as his true conviction, not that
which he had retracted. How decidedly, indeed,
he commits himself to the doctrine of the perpet-
uity of miracles will appear if we read the heading
of one of the chapters of the De Civitate Dei :
" Concerning the miracles which were wrought in
order that the world might believe in Christ and
which cease not to be wrought now that the world
does believe." He lived in a time, indeed, when
the shadows of superstition had already begun to
creep over the Church, and the records of miracles
which he makes are occasionally marred by some
trace of such superstition :

" For even now, he says, " miracles are wrought
in his name whether by the sacraments, or by
prayers, or at the tombs of the saints. But
they are not proclaimed with the same renown, so
as to be spread abroad with the former. For the
sacred volume which was to be made known on all
sides caused the former to be told everywhere and
to hold their place in all men's memories ; but the
latter are known of scarcely beyond the whole city

•"In an early work, De Vera Religion* xxv. 47, he denies their continuance,
while in hi* Retraction* he withdraw* thu statement, or limits it to such miracle*
as those that accompanied baptism at the first. In De Civ. Dei. xxii. 8, he
enumerates at great length miracles, chiefly those of healing, which he believed
to have been wrought in his own time, and coming mora or lea* within bis own
knowledge" Trench ; Note* 00 the Mirads«, p. •»

OF THEOLOGIANS. 89

or neighborhood where they may happen to be
wrought." *

In the same chapter he goes on to give instances
to corroborate this assertion. We reproduce one,
abridging the narrative, which is very extended,
but retaining the essential points. The story is
exceedingly natural and affecting. It is concern-
ing Innocentius, a devout Christian, and a man of
high rank in Carthage. He was suffering from a
painful malady, and had submitted to several sur-
gical operations for its removal, but without effect.
An eminent surgeon, Alexandrinus by name, being
summoned, declared that there was no hope except
possibly in another operation. This was decided
on, and several officers of the Church were with
him the evening before his trial, of whom he beg.
ged that they would be present the next day at
what he feared would be his death. "Among
those present," says Augustine, "was Aurelius,
now the only surviver and a bishop : a man ever to
be mentioned with the greatest regard and honor,
with whom, in calling to mind the wonderful works
of God, I have often conversed on the occurrence,
and I find that he retains the fullest recollection of

Works v., p. *9?

go THB TESTIMONY

what I now relate," The rest we give in the

words of Augustine :

" We then went to prayer ; and, while we were
kneeling and prostrating ourselves, as on other
occasions, he also prostrated himself, as if some
wie had forcibly thrust him down, and began to
pray: in what manner, with what earnestness,
with what emotion, with what a flood of tears,
with what agitation of his whole body, I might
almost say with what suspension of his respiration,
by his groans and sobs, who shall attempt to
describe ? Whether the rest of the party were so
little affected as to be able to pray I knew not.
For my part I could not. This, alone, inwardly
and briefly, I said : ' Lord, what prayers of thine
own children wilt thou ever grant if thou grant not
these f ' For nothing seemed more possible but
that he should die praying. We arose, and, after
the benediction by the bishop, left him, but not
till he had besought them to be with him in the
morning, nor till they had exhorted him to calm-
ness. The dreaded day arrived, and the servants
of God attended as they had promised. The
medical men made their appearance ; all things
required for such an occasion are got ready, and,
amidst the terror and suspense of all present, the
dreadful instruments are brought out. In the
meantime, while those of the bystanders whose
authority was the greatest, endeavored to support
the courage of the patient by words of comfort,
he is placed in a convenient position for the oper-
ation, the dressings are opened, the seat of the
disease is exposed, the surgeon inspects it, and
tries to find the part to be operated upon with his

OF THEOLOGIANS. 91

instrument in his hand. He first looks for it, then
examines by the touch ; in a word, he makes every
possible trial, and finds the place perfectly healed.
The gladness, the praise, the thanksgiving to a com-
passionate and all powerful God, which, with min-
gled joy and tears, now burst from the lips of all
present, cannot be told by me. The scene may
more easily be imagined than described."

It will be seen, on careful reading, that aside
from the testimony of the writer himself, there is
everything in this story to indicate the genuine-
ness and authenticity of the miracle. Its detailed
narration shows how unquestionably the writer
believes in healing through the prayer of faith.

Martin Luther, " whose prose is a half battle,"
would be likely to speak strongly on this subject
if he spoke at all. Martin Luther, whose prayers
were victorious battles, so that they who knew
him were wont to speak of him as " the man who
can have whatever he wishes of God," would be
likely to plead efficaciously in this field if he en-
tered it at all. And so he did. The testimony of
Luther's prayers for the healing of the body are
among the strongest of any on record in modern
times. He has been quoted, indeed, as disparag-
ing miracles. And the explanation of this fact

9? TUB TESTIMONY

is perfectly easy for those who have investigated
his real opinions. Like the other reformers — like
Huss and Latimer, for example, he revolted vio-
lently from the impudent Romish miracles which
in his day put forth their claims on every side.
This frequently led him to speak in very contempt-
uous terms of modern signs and wonder-working.
And it is not strange that some, lighting on these
utterances, should have concluded that he denied
all supernatural interventions in modern times.
But if we turn from Luther the controversialist to
Luther the pastor, we find a man who believed and
spoke with all the vehemence of his Saxon heart
on the side of present miracles. " How often has
it happened and still does," he says, " that devils
have been driven out in the name of Christ, also
by calling on his name and prayer that the sick
have been healed ? " And he suited his action to
his words on this point ; for when they brought him
a girl saying that she was possessed with a devil
Luther laid his hand on her head, appealed to the
Lord's promise : " He that believeth on me the
works I do shall he do also, and greater works than
these shall he do," and then prayed to God, with
the rest of the ministers of the Church, that, fa

OF THEOLOGIANS. 93

Christ's sake, he would cast the devil out of this
girl.* Perfect recovery is recorded in this instance
as well as in several others where he prayed for
the sick.

The most notable instance is that of Philip
Melancthon. An account of this recovery, which
seems to be trustworthy, is given by the historian
to whom we have just referred. Melancthon had
fallen ill on a journey, and a messenger had been
despatched to Luther. The story continues :

" Luther arrived and found Philip about to give
up the ghost. His eyes were set ; his conscious-
ness was almost gone ; his speech had failed, and
also his hearing ; his face had fallen ; he knew no
one, and had ceased to take either solids or liquids.
At this spectacle Luther is filled with the utmost
consternation, and turning to his fellow travellers
says : ' Blessed Lord, how has the devil spoiled me
of this instrument ! ' Then turning away towards
the window he called most devoutly on God."

Then follows the substance of Luther's prayer :

" He beseeches God to forbear, saying that he
has struck work in order to urge upon him in sup-
plication, with all the promises he can repeat from
scripture : that he must hear and answer now if
he would ever have the petitioner trust in him
again."

Seckendorf's History of Lutheranism, B. nt. p. 133.

94 THE TESTIMONY

The narrative goes on :

" After this, taking the hand of Philip, and well
knowing what was the anxiety of his heart and
conscience, he said * Be of good courage, Philip,
thou shalt not die. Though God wanted not good
reason to slay thee, yet he willeth not the death of
a sinner, but that he may be converted and live.
Wherefore, give not place to the spirit of grief, nor
become the slayer of thyself, but trust in the Lord
who is able to kill and to make alive.' While he
uttered these things Philip began, as it were, to
revive and to breathe, and gradually recovering
his strength, is at last restored to health."

If the reader should conclude hastily that this
recovery may be accounted for on entirely natural
principles, we have to remind him that the convic-
tion of both parties to the transaction was quite
otherwise.

Melancthon writing to a friend says :

" I should have been a dead man had I not been
recalled from death itself by the coming of Luther. "

Luther speaks in the same manner writing to

friends :

" Philip is very well after such an illness, for it
was greater than I had supposed. I found him dead,
but, by an evident miracle of God, he lives"

Again, referring to his attendance at the diet, he

says :

" Toil and labor have been lost, and money spent

OF THEOLOGIANS. 9$

to no purpose ; nevertheless, though I have suc-
ceeded in nothing, yet If etched back Philip out of
/fades, and intend to bring him now, rescued from
the grave, home again with joy, &c."

Such is the witness of the great reformer, and,
if needful, it might be strengthened by reference
to other remarkable instances of his power in
prayer for the sick.

That of Myconius is well known, who wrote
of himself: "Raised up in the year 1541 by the
mandates, prayers and letter of the reverend Father,
Luther, from death."

Luthardt furnishes this version of the event :

"Myconius, the venerated superintendent of
Gotha, was in the last stage of consumption, and
already speechless. Luther wrote to him that he
must not die : ' May God not let me hear so long
as I live that you are dead, but cause you to
survive me. I pray this earnestly, and will
have it granted, and my will will be grant-
ed herein, Amen.' 'I was so horrified,' said
Myconius, afterwards, ' when I read what the good
man had written, that it seemed to me as though
I had heard Christ say, ' Lazarus come forth.'
And from that time Myconius was, as it were,
kept from the grave by the power of Luther's
prayers, and did not die till after Luther's death." *

The stout lion heart of the Reformer revolted

against the grotesque miracles of Anti-christ ; but

* Lathardt Moral Truths of Christianity, p. 2g&

9*5 THE TESTIMONY

the beKeving heart of the Christian took the pro

mises of God, and pleaded them and proved them ;

and he gained what he regarded as the greatest oi

conquests : that of having demonstrated scripture,

so as to be able to say of one text in the Bible :

" This I know for certain to be true**

Richard Baxter will be listened to with especial

deference on the question before us. He was so

bold in uttering his convictions that Boyle said of

him that " he feared no man's displeasure, nor

hoped for any man's preferment;" and he was also

so devout that Joseph Alleine was accustomed to

preface his quotations from him with the words

"As most divinely saith that man of God, holy

Mr. Baxter." He wrote very decidedly in defence

of present miraculous interpositions for God's

faithful. Speaking of what he calls " eminent

providences," he says :

" I am persuaded that there is scarcely a godly
experienced Christian that carefully observes and
faithfully recordeth God's providence toward him
but is able to bring forth some such experiment,
and to shew you some strange and unusual mercies
which may plainly discover an Almighty disposer,
making good the promises of this scripture to
his servants; some in desperate diseases of body;
some in other apparent dangers delivered so sud-
denly or so much against the common course of

OF THEOLOGIANS. 97

nature when all the best remedies have failed, that
no second cause could have any hand in their
deliverance." *

After referring to some remarkable instances in

the lives of the reformers he says ;

" But why need I fetch examples so far off P or
to recite the multitude of them which Church his
tory doth afford us ? Is there ever a praying
Christian here who knoweth what it is importu-
nately to strive with God, and to plead his promises
with him believingly, that cannot give in his ex-
periences of most remarkable answers ? / know
metis atheism and infidelity will never want some-
what to say against the most eminent providences,
though they were miracles themselves. That na-
ture which is so ignorant of God, and at emnity
with him, will not acknowledge him in his clear
discoveries to the world, but will ascribe all to for-
tune or nature, or some such idol, which, indeed,
is nothing. But when mercies are granted in the
very time of prayer, and that when to reason there
is no hope, and that without the use or help of any
other means or creature, yea, and perhaps many
times over and over ; is not this as plain as if God
from heaven should say to us, / am fulfilling to
thee the true word of my promise in Christ my
Sonne ? How many times have I known the pray ef
of faith to save the sick when all physicians have
given them up as dead." (Here Baxter subjoins a
note to be given presently.) " It has been my own
case more than once or twice or ten times, when
means have all failed, and the highest art of rea-

* Saint's Rest, Part 11. chap. vi. Sec. V.

98 THE TESTIMONY

son has sentenced me hopeless, yet have I been re-
lieved by the prevalency of fervent prayer, and that
(as the physician saith "tuto, cito, et jucunde,"
my flesh and my heart failed, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion for ever.)
And though he yet keep me under necessary weak-
ness, and wholesome sickness, and certain expecta-
tion of further necessities, and assaults, yet am I
constrained by most convincing experiences, to set
up this stone of remembrance, and publickly to
the praise of the Almighty, to acknowledge that
certainly God is true of his promises, and that they
are indeed his own infallible word, and that it is
a most excellent privilege to have interest in God,
and a Spirit of supplication to be importunate with
him. I doubt not but most Christians that observe
the Spirit and providences are able to attest this
prevalency of prayer by their own experiences." *

He then gives a detailed account of his own re-
markable healing which we quote in full.

"Among abundance of instances that I could
give, my conscience commandeth me here to give
you this one, as belonging to the very words here
written. I had a tumor rise on one of the tonsils
or almonds of my throat, round like a pease, and
at first no bigger; and at last no bigger than a
small button, and hard like a bone. The fear lest
it should prove a cancer troubled me more than the
thing itself. I used first dissolving medicines, and
after lenient for palliation, and all in vain for about
a quarter of a year. At last my conscience smote
vw for silencing so many former deliverances, tJiat 1

•Ibid.

OP THEOLOGIANS. 99

had had in answer of prayers ; merely in pride, lest
I should be derided as making ostentation of God's
special mercies to myself, as if I were a special
favorite of heaven, I had made no public mention
of them : I was that morning to preach just what
is here written, and in obedience to my conscience,
I spoke these words which are now in this page,
viz : " how many times have I known the prayer of
faith to save the sick when all physicians have given
them up as dead" — with some enlargements not
here written. When I went to church I had my
tumor as before, (for I frequently saw it in the
glasse, and felt it constantly.) As soon as I had
done preaching, I felt it was gone, and hasting to
the glasse, I saw that there was not the least
vestigium or cicatrix, or mark wherever it had
been : nor did I at all discern what became of it.
I am sure I neither swallowed it nor spit it out,
and it was unlikely to dissolve by any natural
cause, that had been hard like a bone a quarter of
a year, notwithstanding all dissolving gargarismes.
I thought fit to mention this, because it was done
just as I spoke the words here written in this page.
Many such marvellous mercies I have received,
and known that others have received in answer
to prayers."*

At once we imagine the explanations which will

be given to this artlessly narrated incident. We

do not vouch for its supernatural character. We

have introduced it simply to show that Richard

Baxter believed in modern miracles of healing, and

there we leave it. It is not the authenticity of the

•IbfeJ

TOO THE TESTIMONY

wonder but the opinion of the man which we wish
now to establish. That must be considered un-
questionable.

John Albert Bengel is not only greatly esteemed
but held in real affection by lovers of God's word
who have studied his commentary. He expounds
pithily, but what is far better he believes intensely.
" His works," says Dorner/'were the first cockcrow-
ing of that new kind of exegesis which the Church
so much needed." His is pre-eminently the exe-
gesis of faith in distinction from the exegesis of rea-
son. If he finds things in the Bible too hard for
his critical faculty he finds nothing too hard for his
believing faculty. Hence his interpretations are
not a sizing and sorting of scripture to the dimen-
sions of human experience, but a frank acceptance
of it as God's truth. The word never appears
shrunken as it comes forth from his hand ; it does
not present a scant weight as though it had paid toll
to modem doubt. "Faith takes up all she can get and
marches bravely onward" is a saying of his that
describes better than any other his conduct in
handling scripture. Now by faith Bengel staggered
not at the promise of miraculous healing, which he
found in the New Testament, but believed it, and

OF THEOLOGIANS. 101

confessed it, and rejoiced in it. In speaking of
the gift of healing he says : —

" It seems to have been given by God that it
might always remain in the Church as a specimen
of the other gifts : Just as the portion of manna
betokened the ancient miracles."* "O happy sim-
plicity ! interrupted or lost through unbelief," he
exclaims. And yet he declares, " even in our day
faith has in every believer a hidden miraculous
power. Every result of prayer is really miraculous
even though this be not apparent; although in
many, because of their own weakness and the
world's unworthiness, — not merely because the
church once planted needs not miracles (though no
doubt the early New Testament miracles have
made for the Lord an everlasting name) — that
power does not exert itself in our day. Signs were
in the beginning the props of faith : now they are
the object of faith."f

And then, for confirming his assertions of his
belief in the possibility of modern miracles, he in-
troduces the following instance :

"At Leonberg a town of Wirtembergh, a. d.
1644, thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, a girl of
twenty-three years of age, was so disabled in her
limbs as hardly to be able to creep along by the
help of crutches. But whilst the Dean, Raumier
was his name, was from the pulpit dwelling on the
miraculous power of Jesu's name she suddenly was
raised up and restored to the use of her limbs."

* Comment on James v. 17.
t On Mark 16: 14.

102 THE TESTIMONY

This story the American editor omits as though
solicitous for the critics reputation; but Faucett
the English translator retains it in its place, and
adds from information gathered from other sources
that " this, happened in the presence of the Duke
of Eberhard, and his courtiers and was committed
to the public records which are above all suspicion/'

Edward Irving is another illustrious confessor
bearing witness to the doctrine we are defending.
A man of wonderful endowments,* his highest gift
seems to have been that of faith. He believed,
with the whole strength and intensity of his na-
ture, everything which he found written in the
Scriptures. Cast upon times of great spiritual dead-
>}S4 he longed to see Christendom mightily revived,
•did he conceived that this could only be effected
by stirring up the Church to recover her forfeited
endowments. "To restore is to revive," was em-
phatically his motto. He gave great offence by
his utterances and had his name cast out as evil.
He was accused of offering strange fire upon the
altar of his Church, because he thought to relight

* " But I hold, withal and not the less firmly for these discrepancies in our
moods and judgments, that Edward Irving possesses more of the spirit and pur-
pose of the first Reformers, that he lias more of the head and heart, the lit* and
unction and the genial power of Martin Luther, than any man now alive : yea,
than any man of this or the last century. I see in Edward Irving a minister of
Christ after the order of Paul" Coleridge ; works v. vi, p. 115.

OP THEOLOGIANS. 103

the fire of Pentecost. Need enough was there of
restoration, when teachers had so far made void the
word of God by their traditions that in their dis-
cussion with him they openly appealed from the
Bible to the standards. Have you never read what
Jehoiakim the son of Judah did with his pen-knife
upon the prophet's roll ? — How "it came to pass
that when Jehudi had reswi three or four leaves,
he cut it with his penknife and cast it into the
fire ! " Alas! that modern theology should have
given occasion to be accused of doing likewise
with the xiith of 1. Corinthians and sundry other
parts of scripture that tell about " to another the
gift of healing by the same Spirit, and another the
working of miracles, to another prophecy," etc.

Irving, with a zeal for the Lord not always tem-
perate, accused the Church of having clipped out
these portions from the scripture with her exe-
getical penknife, because she had said "these
things do not pertain to the Church of to-day."
And he went farther — "the Lord commanded
Jeremiah to take another roll and to write in it
all the former words that were in the first roll
which Jehoiakim the son of Judah had burned."
And Irving conceived that he had a similar com-

104 TUB TESTIMONY

mission or at least permission, — not to make any
new revelation, as he was accused, — but to retrace
the faded lines of the old, wherein it spoke of
"spiritual gifts :" and so he encouraged his flock
to seek for, and if the Lord should permit, to ex-
ercise the gifts of prophecy and of healing. This
was his chief affront, and that which brought his
splendid career under an eclipse, — a result inevi-
table indeed considering that he was to be judged
by those who knew no distinction between innova-
tion and renovation.

But bating any extravagances into which he may
have fallen, we confess that our heart has always
gone out to him in reverence for his heroic fidelity
to the word of God, and his willingness, in allegi-
ance to that word, to follow Christ " without the
camp bearing the reproach." And we believe that
when the Master shall come to recompense his
servants, this one will attain a high reward and
receive of the Lord double for the broken heart
with which he went down to his grave.

Irving wrote upon this subject with his usual
masterly ability. Considering the Church to be
"the Body of Christ," and the endowment of the
Church to be " the fulness of him that filleth all

OF THEOLOGIANS. IO$

in all," he held that the Church ought to exhibit
In every age something of that miraculous power
which belongs to the Head. That as she endures
hardness and humiliation as united to him who was
on the cross, so she should exhibit something of
supernatural energy as united with him who is on
the throne. This he conceived to be essential for
the Church's full witness to Christ — to him "who
is now creation's sceptre-bearer as he was hereto-
fore creation's burden-bearer."

He lamented that the Church in her working
has descended so much to the plane of the merely
natural, that in preaching, the arts of the logician
and the rhetorician have so far supplanted the gifts
of the Spirit. "The power of miracles must either
be speedily revived in the Church " he says,
"or there will be a universal dominion of the me-
chanical philosophy, and faith will be fairly ex-
pelled to give place to the law of cause and effect
acting and ruling in the world of mind as it doth
in the world of sense."*

He considered miracles to be intended not only
for a perpetual demonstration of Christ's power as
bow living and glorified, but also as a visible fore-

* Works V.i 479.

106 THE TESTIMONY

token of his coming kingdom. He has pointed
out with marked clearness the significance of the
various signs promised in the great commission,
showing how these were given as first-fruits of the
kingdom of God as it shall appear in its full con-
summation. As that kingdom was always to be
preached, he held that these signs were promised
as the perpetual accompaniment of that preaching.
He concluded that their withdrawal is due to the
Church's unfaithfulness, and not to any revocation
on the part of God.

"These gifts have ceased, I would say, just as
the verdure and leaves and flowers and fruits of
the spring and summer and autumn cease in win-
ter. Because by the chill and wintry blasts which
have blown over the Church, her power to put
forth her glorious beauty hath been prevented.
But because the winter is without a green leaf 01
beautiful flower do men thereof argue that there
shall be flowers and fruits no more ?

Trusting in the word of God, who hath created
everything to produce and bring forth its kind,
man puts out his hand in winter and makes prepa-
rations for the coming year: so if the Church be
still in existence, and that no one denies : and if it
be the law and end of her being to embody a first
fruit and earnest of the power which Christ is to
put forth in the redemption of all nature ; then,
what though she hath been brought so low, her lite

OF THEOLOGIANS. 10/

is still in her, and that life will under a more genial

day put forth its native powers."*

It was from such convictions as these that he
reasoned so powerfully and prayed so earnestly for
the recovery by the Church of her primitive gifts.
If the effort brought pain and persecution to him,
we believe it has brought forth some very sweet
and genial fruits in others. He was no mere
theorist. He not only exhorted his flock " to live
by faith continually on Jesus for the body as well
as the soul," but he has told us the story of his
casting himself on the Lord when mighty disease
laid hold of him ; and how his faith was tried to
the last extremity till with swimming brain and
deathly sweat he stood holding on to the sides of
the pulpit, waiting for God to fulfil in the eyes oi
the people his word "the prayer of faith shall save
the sick ; " and how his Redeemer at last appeared
for his help and loosed for him the bands of sick-
ness enabling hftn to preach on that morning with
such demonstration and power of the Spirit as he
had rarely known.

Thomas Erskine has written on this subject with
rare insight and depth of conviction. Those who

* The Church with her Endowment of Holiness and Power ; Works, V. p.

108 THB TESTIMONY

have read his writings know what a subtle and in-
tuitive spiritual apprehension he has. A barrister
by profession he is far more widely known as a
theologian, while he is most deeply revered as a
Christian, "who " to use Dr. Hanna's words in his
preface to his letters "moved so lovingly and at
tractively among his fellow-men and who walked
so closely and constantly with God."

Speaking of miraculous healing and the other
gifts he says : —

"But I still continue to think, that to any one
whose expectations are formed by and founded on
the New Testament, the disappearance of these
gifts from the Church must be a far greater diffi-
culty than their re-appearance could possibly be."*

In his correspondence with Dr. Chalmers, when
the latter argued that we ought not to desire signs
from the Lord, but to be satisfied with the ordi-
nary manifestations of the Spirit, he replied that
we ought to desire them, if God has ordained
them : —

" If the Lord gives these things as means, surely
it is not genuine humility which says I am satisfied
without them. When the Lord desired Ahaz to
ask a sign he answered, ' I will not ask neither
will I tempt the Lord : ' but he is severely re-
buked for this apparent humility." (Is. vii: 12, 13.)

His strong conviction was that the miraculous

• Letun p. «&.

OF THEOLOGIANS. IO9

gifts were designed to be a permanent endowment
of the Church : —

" The great and common mistake with regard to
the gifts is that they were intended merely to
authenticate or to witness to the inspiration of the
Canon of Scripture, and that therefore when the
Canon was completed they should cease : whereas
they were intended to witness to the exaltation of
Christ as the head of the body, the Church. Had
the faith of the Church, continued pure and full
these gifts of the Spirit would never have disap-
peared. There is no revocation by Christ of that
word."* (Mark xvi : 17, 18.)

With such views he watched with great interest
any indications of a revival of these gifts, and in
the movement in that direction going on in his
day, he believed he witnessed some genuine in-
stances of miraculous healing, as well as of speak-
ing with tongues. We refer to one case mentioned
in his letters:

"In March, 1830, in the town of Port Glasgow,
on the Clyde, lived a family of MacDonalds, twin
brothers, James and George, with their sisters.
One of the sisters, Margaret, of saintly life, lay
very ill, and apparently nigh to death. She had
received a remarkable baptism of the Spirit on her
sick bed, and had been praying for her brothers
that they might be anointed in like manner. One
day when James was standing by, and she was in-

* Brazen Serpent, p. 203. Id. p. tg8.

IK) THE TESTIMONY

terceding that he might at that time be endowed
with the power of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit came
upon him with marvellous manifestations. His
whole countenance was lighted up, and with a
step and manner of most indescribable majesty he
walked up to Margaret's bedside and addressed
her in these words, 'Arise and stand upright.' He
repeated the words, took her by the hand, and she
arose. Her recovery was instantaneous and com-
plete, and the report of it produced a profound
sensation, and many came from great distances to
see her. Mr. Erskine visited the house and made
careful and prolonged inquiry into the facts, and
put on record his conviction of the genuiness of
the miracle."*

His whole discussion of the subject in the work
referred to, " The Brazen Serpent," is deeply in-
structive, and especially his exposition of the in-
tention and significance of miracles of healing as
signs.

Dr. Horace Bushnell, in his well-known work
"Nature and the Supernatural," not only admits
the existence of present-day miracles, but con-
siders that a denial of their possibility would
imperil his whole argument for the supernatural.
Conceding that the Church as a whole has lost her
miraculous faith, and would be inclined to repel it
were it offered to her, and admitting that thinking

* Letters, pp. 17*, 182, 183.

OF THEOLOGIANS. lit

men are not open to conviction on this point, be-
cause " the human mind, as educated mind is just
now at the point of religious apogee, where it is
occupied or preoccupied by nature and cannot
think it rational to suppose that God does anything
longer which exceeds the causalities of nature,"
he yet holds that among humble and simple
hearted believers "sporadic cases" of miracles
have constantly appeared, and continue to appear.
And not only this ; he considers that in our time
there are signs of a revival of the primitive apos-
tolic gifts ; that Christians " feeling after some
way out of the dullness of second-hand faith, and
the dryness of merely reasoned gospel, are long-
ing for a kind of faith that shows God in living
commerce with men such as he vouchsafed them
in former times." " Probably, therefore," he con-
tinues, " there may just now be coming forth a
more distinct and widely attested dispensation of
gifts and miracles than has been witnessed for
centuries."

Dr. Bushnell's testimony as a whole is quite
remarkable, because it is that of a cultivated rea-
soner, looking at the question through the eyes of
logic as well as through the eyes of faith- His

113 THE TESTIMONY

well argued discussion and wide array of facts
ought at. least to arrest the attention of the savans
who toss off this subject with a derisive sneer.
That unripe skepticism, which denies before it has
even doubted, has nowhere been more arrogant
than on this field. Presumptious enough it is to
attempt to pick a miracle to pieces with the steel
fingers of logic, but to leave it cooly alone is
worse. And yet this is the method which reason
has too often taken with anything professedly
supernatural in these days. Scientific reason and
Christian reason have passed by modern miracles
as poor relations, to be looked at askance but not
to be admitted into the best circles of taith and
credence. And it is, therefore, quite gratifying to
note the frank and cordial recognition which a
thinker like Dr. Bushnell extends to them. Heal-
ing, prophecy, and gifts of tongues he admits as
possible, and to some extent operative to-day as in
the beginning. From a large array of instances
adduced in his work we give place to but one, re-
ferring the reader for further information to the
fourteenth chapter of the work named, in which he
discusses the proposition : " Miracles and super-
natural gifts not discontinued'*

OP THEOLOGIANS. II3

The case cited is from the experience of a friend
of his, who had been healed by prayer himself,
and had, as he believed, received the gift of heal-
ing. He gives the instance to Dr. Bushnell in
writing, and the doctor considers his character
and veracity to be such as to put his story beyond
question :

" At length one of his children, whom he had
with him away from home, was taken ill with scar-
let fever. And now the question was," I give his
own words, " what was to be done ? The Lord
had healed my own sickness, but would he heal
my son ? I conferred with a brother in the Lord,
who, having no faith in Christ's healing power,
urged me to send instantly for the doctor, and I
dispatched his groom on horseback to fetch him.
Before the Doctor arrived my mind was filled with
revelation on the subject. I saw that I had fallen
into a snare by turning away from the Lord's heal-
ing hand to lean on medical skill. I felt greviously
condemned in my conscience ; a fear also fell on
me that if I persevered in my unbelieving course
my son would die, as his oldest brother had. The
symptoms in both were precisely similar. The
doctor arrived. My son, he said, was suffering
from a scarlet fever, and medicine should be sent
immediately. While he stood, prescribing, I re-
solved to withdraw the child and cast him on the
Lord. And when he was gone I called the nurse
and told her to take the child into the nursery, and
lay him on the bed. I then fell on my knees, con-
fessing the sin I had committed against the Lord's

114 THE TESTIMONY

healing power. I also prayed most earnestly that
it would please my heavenly Father to forgive my
sin, and to show that he forgave it by causing the
fever to be rebuked. I received a mighty convic-
tion that my prayer was heard, and I arose and
went to the nursery, at the end of a long passage,
to see what the Lord had done, and on opening
the door, to my astonishment, the boy was sitting
up in his bed, and on seeing me cried out, ' I am
quite well and want to have my dinner.' In an
hour he was dressed, and well, and eating his din-
ner, and when the physic arrived it was cast out of
the window.

Next morning the doctor returned, and on meet-
ing me at the garden gate he said, * I hope your
son is no worse ? " He is very well, I thank you,
said I in reply. 'What can you mean?' rejoined
the doctor. I will tell you ; come in and sit down.
I then told him all that had occurred, at which he
fairly gasped with surprise. ' May I see your son,'
he asked. Certainly, doctor ; but I see that you
do not believe me. We proceded up stairs, and
my son was playing with his brother on the floor.
The doctor felt his pulse and said, ■ Yes, the fever
is gone.' Finding also a fine, healthy surface on
his tongue, he added, 'Yes, he is quite well ; I sup-
pose it was the crisis of his disease." *

These testimonies might be increased by the

addition of such names as those of Hugh Grotius,

the Dutch theologian, and Lavater, the "Fenelon

of Switzerland," as he has been called, and Hugh

VlcNeil, the eminent English evangelical minister

Kature and tha Supernatural, p. 48a

OF THEOLOGIANS. 115

of the last generation, and Thomas Boys, M. A.,
of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, and
others.*

But we have not space to refer to more. These
are a goodly array of witnesses ; yet not because of
their eminence have we summoned them. We
care little for the testimony of a deep thinker ex-
cept he has thought deeply and devoutly upon the
subject in hand. The shorter sounding line, if it
has dropped its lead to the utmost limit, has told
us more of the depth than the longer one that re-
mained coiled and dry. And so the very mediocre
theologian who has studied this question to the
extent of his capacity is a better witness than the
most profound who has never investigated it, but
has rested in unreasoning assent to what Dr. Bush-
nell calls " the clumsy assumption " that all mira-
cles closed with the apostolic age.

* The works of Thomas Boys, "The Christian Dispensation Miraculous" and
" Proofs 0/ Miraculous Faith and Experience of the Church in all Ages" are
full of learning and information on this whole subject, and this book gratefully
acknowledges its indebtedness to them for several quotations and translations from
rare and inacessible works.

VL

THE TESTIMONY OF MISSIONS.

There is a special and weighty reason why we
should lay emphasis on any testimonies on this
subject coming from those who are preaching the
gospel among the Pagans. The rigid logic which
is supposed to fence out miracles from modern
Christendom, does not seem to have been careful
to include heathendom in its prohibition. For
when it is said that " miracles belong to the plant-
ing of Christianity not to its progress and develop-
ment;" it will at once strike us that missions are
practically the planting of Christianity. There is
really little if any difference between Paul at
Melita, and Judson in India. In each instance it
is the herald of the Gospel set down among a su-
perstitious and idolatrous people. And admitting
the proposition just quoted to be true, it would be
very difficult to say why if Paul went into the
house of Publius in the one place and laid his hands
on his sick father and healed him, it might not be

OF MISSIONS. 117

permitted Judson to go into some home in Burmah
and do the same. And if it be said that signs are
not needed while we have the history of the Chris-
tian Church, and the influence of powerful Christian
nations for the authentication and enforcement of
the gospel,* it must still be remembered that these
forces are practically powerless until by the plant-
ing of Christianity the heathen have been made
acquainted with Ecclesiastical History and brought
in contact with Christian civilization ; so that the
argument comes back again to this conclusion : —
that if miracles belong to the planting of Christi-
anity, there would be no inherent improbability of
their appearing on missionary fields, and among
those who are engaged in introducing the Gospel
into new countries. The justness of this conclu-
sion has been recognized by several writers.

-We are glad to find, for example so devout and
eminent a theologian as Professor Christlieb of
Bonn accepting most candidly and frankly this
position. For after admitting the force of the
argument against miracles in Christianized coun-
*jies he says : —

" Our age however is still characterized by the

*See AHordon Mark 16

Il8 THE TESTIMONY

establishment of new Churches. The work of
missions is outwardly at least more extended than
it ever was before. In this region therefore, accord-
ing to our former rule, miracles should not be en-
tirely wanting* Nor are they. We cannot there-
fore fully admit the proposition that no more mira-
cles are petformed in our day. In the history oj
modern missions we find many wonderful occurren-
ces which unmistakably remind us of the apostolic
age. In both periods there are similar hinderances
to be overcome in the heathen world and similar
confirmations of the word are needed to convince
the dull sense of men : we may therefore expect
miracles in this case."f

And then as though less afraid of the imputa-
tion of credulity than of skepticism, he gives sev-
eral instances, in the genuineness of which he
expresses entire confidence. These we believe are
but samples of hundreds that might be produced
were it not for the exceeding timidity, the shyness
amounting almost to shame-facedness with which
so many Christians approach this subject Of
course with this sentiment of distrust generally
prevailing on the subject, we could hardly expect
that witnesses would be very forward in reporting
things indiscreetly supernatural, though quite con-
fident of having seen them.

• Abp. Tiltotson puts forth a similar view. Works, x. p. sjo-
t Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, p. jj«.

OF MISSIONS. 119

We venture however to give several instances of

what seems to be divine healing, as they have been

reported from missionary fields — the first three

being those cited by Dr. Christlieb in the work just

referred to: —

" And now read the history of Hans Egede, the
first Evangelical missionary in Greenland. He had
given the Esquimaux a pictorial representation of
the miracles of Christ before he had mastered
their language. His hearers, who, like many in
the time of Christ, had a perception only for bodily
relief, urge him to prove the power of this Re-
deemer of the world upon their sick people. With
many sighs and prayers he ventures to lay his
hands upon several, prays over them, and lo, he
makes them whole in the name of Jesus Christ!
The Lord could not reveal himself plainly enough
to this mentally blunted and degraded race by
merely spiritual means, and therefore bodily signs
were needed."

"At a Rhenish mission station in South Africa
in 1858, an earnest native Christian saw an old
friend who had become lame in both legs. Im-
pressed with a peculiar sense of believing confv
dence, he went into the bushes to pray, and then
came straight up to the cripple, and said, ' the
same Jesus who made the lame to walk, can do so
still: I say to thee, in the name of Jesus, rise and
walk!' The lame man, with kindred faith, raised
himself on his staff and walked, to the astonish-
ment of all who knew him." (Vide the Memoire
of Kleinschmidt, Barmen 1866, p. 58, ff).

120 THE TESTIMONY

Another most remarkable instance occurred in
the case of a missionary of the Rhenish society,
named Nommensen, working in Sumatra.

" On one occasion a heathen who had designs
on his life managed secretly to mix a deadly poison
in the rice which Nommensen was preparing for
his dinner. Without suspicion, the missionary ate
the rice, and the heathen watched for him to fall
down dead. Instead of this, however, the promise
contained in Mark xvi: 18, was fulfilled, and he
did not experience the slightest inconvenience.
The heathen, by this palpable miraculous proof of
the Christian God's power, became convinced of
the truth, and was eventually converted ; but not
until his conscience had impelled him to confess
his guilt to Nommensen, did the latter know from
what danger he had been preserved. This inci-
dent is well attested, and the missionary still
lives." 1873, (vd v, Rohden Geschichte der rhein,
Missionsgesellsschaft, p. 324.)

It will be seen that these instances cover several
specifications in Mark 16: 17, 18. Their miracu-
lous character cannot of course be vouched for
with certainty. For we have not witnesses super-
naturally inspired to accredit works supernaturally
wrought, if there are such still. But one would
hardly wish to charge deception on those who
have reported them. For us, however, their prob-
ability rests more strongly on the words of the

0F MISSIONS. 121

great commission* under which these missionaries
were acting than on the trust-worthiness of human
testimony. Doctrines which have been almost
universally denied are certain to force themselves
into acceptance again if they are in the Bible, and
that Bible is studied. And a promise in the mis-
sionary's commission which says : " These signs
shall follow " is liable now and then to break
through custom and prejudice and get itself ful-
filled. Besides that commission is certain to fall
into the hands of native preachers, who are un*
skilled in the arts of refining and spiritualizing
scripture, and who know no better than to take
God literally at his word. And who can tell what
may not happen when a Christian who has not
learned to doubt comes to God to claim the fulfil-
ment of one of his promises ? In such a case we

* " But, inasmuch as far later times are full of testimonies to this point, I
know not from what motive some persons restrain the gift to the first ages.
While I readily grant to such persons that there was a richer abundance of mira^
cles in order that the foundation of so great a structure might, in spite of the
world's power, be laid, I cannot with them perceive why we should believe that
<fiis promise of Christ has ceased to be in force. Wherefore, if any one preach
Christ, as he would have himself preached, to the nations that know him not
(for miracles are peculiarly intended for such, i Cor. xiv. 22), I doubt not that
the promise will still be found to stand good ; for the gifts of God are without
repentance (Rom. xi. 29). But we, whenever the fault lies in our own sloth at
unbelief, throw the blame on him." — Hugo Grotms. 1583 — 1645.

I22 THE TESTIMONY

may hear of miracles quite artless and rude in their
form.

A missionary of the Presbyterian Board who has
been laboring for many years in China, declares
that with the New Testament in their hands the
native Christians are constantly finding and put-
ting in practice the promises for miraculous heal-
ing. This fact has led him to a careful revision of
his opinions on the subject. He writes:

"Fully believing that the gifts of the Spirit
were not to be taken from the Church, I feel as-
sured that our faith ought to exercise and claim
their use now. The salvation. aimed for by all,
should be present release from sin and the power
of Satan. If this is attained then the whole ad-
vantage of Christ's life, death and resurrection will
be secured. Healing is as much a part of this as any
verbal proclamation of the good news. The min-
istry of healing, therefore, can not be divorced
from the duty of the missionary."

An honored missionary among the Karens gives
the following experience :

"While travelling in the Pegu district I was
strongly urged to visit an out of the way village,
in which were only a few Christians. Entering
the house of one of them, 1 had been seated but
a little while when there came in a Karen, an en-
tire stranger, but whose salutation proved him a
Christian. He at once said that hearing that
the teacher had come to visit the village, he came

OF MISSIONS. 123

to beg that I would go and pray for his son who
was very ill, he feared dying. He quoted James

v., 14-15 as his excuse. Of course Mrs. and

myself went at once, accompanied by the three or
four Christians of the house in which we were.
The patient was found to be a child of about fif-
teen years of age, possibly not over fourteen, but
through scrofula, he was distorted and crippled so
that he could not walk, indeed had never walked
upright but crept painfully on knees and hands. He
was greatly wasted, and had been much worse for
some weeks, and at the time was perfectly helpless
through extreme weakness. He had every appear-
ance of one near death. We prayed, each in turn,
the lad mingling short requests with ours. I think
in all seven brethren offered petitions. A little
bottle of medicine was left from our scanty supplies
and we took leave of the poor little fellow. Six
months afterwards the father came to the city,
and on inquiring of him he said that his son
was well, — well as he had never been in his life,
and was actually walking on his feet, that the hea-
then families living in the village were deeply
impressed, and said unhesitatingly that our prayers
had saved him. I asked him his own opinion. He,
most emphatically, in his strong Karen way, said :
* God has done it ; God has healed him/ He then
said, ' Teacher this is no new thing ; I was with
your father-in-law many times when God, in ans-
wer to prayers, healed the sick, and that is why 1
asked you to pray with my boy, and now he is
healed.' "

Many testimonies have been recently published

by missionaries of their own recovery from hope-

124 THE TESTIMONY

less sickness through the prayers of faith. We
can give place to but one, and that quite abridged
in form. It is from Rev. Albert Norton, and is
written to Dr. Stanton of Cincinnati, formerly
moderator of the General Assembly. After de*
scribing his terrible sickness in Elichpoor, India,
June, 1879 — an abscess in the liver which had
worked itself through the pleura and was discharg-
ing itself into the right lung — the most intense
pain ever endured, and withal malarious remittent
fever, &c, He continues :

" I was thinking only of how I might die as easy
as possible, when I was aroused by strong desire
to live for my family, and to preach the unsearch-
able riches of the Gospel, and the thought came
' why cannot God heal you ? ' My dear wife was
the only Christian believer, except an ignorant
Kerkoo lad, within eighteen miles. At my re-
quest she anointed me with oil, and united her
prayers with mine that God might at once heal
me. While I was praying vocally, before I felt
any change in my body, I felt perfectly certain
that God had heard and answered our prayers.
When we were through praying we commenced
praising ; for the acute pain in my right side, and
the fever, had left me. I was able at once to read
some from the Bible, and to look out some pas-
sages from the Greek Testament. Neither the
fever nor the acute pain returned, and from that
hour I began rapidly to grow stronger. In a few
days I was able to walk half a mile without fatigue

OF MISSIONS. 125

In this sickness I took no medicine, and had the
help of no physician but Jesus. To him be all
the praise and glory. Why should it be thought a
strange thing that he can heal our bodies ? It is
written of him, ' Himself took our infirmities and
bare our sicknesses.' Is it not said of our Lord,
'Who healeth all thy diseases/ as well as 'Who
forgiveth all their iniquities ' ? " *

We must believe, however, that if God really
stretched forth his hand to heal in these instances,
it was for the furtherance of the gospel as the
chief purpose. Miracles are the signs and not the
substance of Christianity. They are for the con-
firmation of the Word, and not merely for the
comfort of the body. And this fact especially en-
hances the probability that they might not be
entirely wanting in heathen lands.

The blind man must read his Bible by means of
raised letters and through the coarser sense of
touch, since he is lacking in eyesight. And what
if to the blind pagans, God should be pleased now
and then to present the gospel embossed in signs
and wonders, if " haply they might feel after him
and find him " in this way, when they could not at
first discern him with the spiritual understanding ?
No more serious objection could be made against

* The Great Physician, by Rev. W. E. Boardman, p. ft.

IJ6 THE TEST/MONT

this method than that it is a revival of the primi
tive. — "And they went forth and preached every-
where, the Lord working with them, and confirm-
ing the word with signs following." Not for the
satisfaction of the flesh but for the glory of God
and the vindication of his truth does our Lord
stretch out his healing hand and " make bare his
holy arm in the eyes of all the nations." If it
should be his good pleasure to make use of those
•ther miracles, the miracles of martyrdom,* and
to show the power of his grace in the supernatural
endurance of his servants under suffering, the
same end has been reached. Perpetua and Felici-
tas, going to a terrible death with a serenity rising
Into absolute joy — the declaration of utter insen-
sibility to pain made before a multitude of witnes-
ses — who has not read of the thrilling impression
thus produced upon the heathen, and of the irresis-
table impulse thereby given to the truth ? These
are but miracles of healing seen on their reverse
side ; the Lord's hand stretched out to rob death
of its pain, instead of robbing death of its victim.
"That the word of the Lord may have free course
and be glorified whether by my life or by my death";

•"Martyrdoms I reckon amongst Miracles, becauM they exceed die •trengtfc <d
human nature." - Bac*n.

OF MISSIONS. 127

whether by my cure or by my patience under suf-
fering— this must be our prayer always. But
God be praised that he willeth the 'health of his
people and not their hurt. The priests of Baal seek
to prove their God by cutting themselves with
knives and lancets. Elijah has just proved his
God by calling the widow's dead son to life and
delivering him to his mother. How greatly do the
idolators, with their endless worship of self-torture,
need to be taught this truth : that our God is one
that makes alive and not one that killeth.

Would, then, that the heathen could know Christ
as the Healer ! Who has not said it as he has
read of the awful loathsomeness of their sicknesses
and the cruel impositions of their doctors. Next
to the intolerable tyranny of evil priests is that of
" the forgers of lies, the physicians of no value,"
with which every pagan nation is afflicted. Can
we describe or imagine the joy of the heathen's
deliverance from the hopeless search for peace of
conscience, as he finds Christ, the sin pardoner ?
" Great Spirit untie the load of our sins. If this
load were bound round our shoulders we could un-
tie it for ourselves ; but it is bound round our
hearts, and we cannot untie it, but thou canst

128 THE TESTIMONY

Lord untie it now." So prayed a poor Fejee
Islander.* Was not the revelation beyond all
price that made known to him the fact that Christ
" bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and so
could instantly lift the load which he had toiled in
vain to lift ? And what if added to this he could hear
and appropriate that other revelation, that " himself
bare our sicknesses?" If when " the whole head is
sick and the whole heart faint, from the sole of the
foot even unto the head, no soundness in it, but
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores ;" and if,
after spending all his living on false physicians, his
wounds " have not been closed, neither bound up,
neither mollified with ointment," he could then
know the Saviour's healing touch laid upon him,
and hear the word " thou art made whole," what
glory would he give to our Lord and Redeemer!

Is it unbecoming or presumptuous for us to con
jecture what effects would ensue if the gospel
were thus to be preached on heathen fields " with
signs following ? " Sickness is the dark shadow of
sin, and nowhere does it lie so heavily as on the
pagan nations. If now and then that shadow were
seen to be lifted by the Lord's hand, the event

• Journal of Weslyan Mittioos.

OF MISSIONS. 129

could hardly fail to open a wide and effectual door
of entrance for the gospel. God forbid that we
should desire or grasp for anything which it is not
his pleasure to give. But what if it should seem
to us that the great commission demands these
signs instead of forbidding them ? Baptism, that
sign of Christ's death and resurrection and of our
justification thereby, is in the commission: and
what bitter battles have been fought in the Church
for its maintenance ! And healing the sick, that
sign of Christ glorified and alive forevermore, is
)n the commission just as unequivocally. And
yet we are so weak and perplexed and impo-
tent before it. Yes ! it is there : But who is
sufficient for these things ? " Who of us would
quite dare to repeat on behalf of our Missionary
brethren, some of whom are laboring among hos-
tile rulers, and blood-thirsty tribes, the apostles
prayer — " And now Lord behold their threaten-
ings and grant unto thy servants that with all bold-
ness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth
thine hand to heal: and that signs and wonders
may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus ?"
If we cannot utter this prayer we may at least join
in the petition which a devout commentator

130 THE TESTIMONY

breathes over the closing words of Mark's Gospel

" Let us cry to the Lord : strengthen and bless
thou the hands of thine authenticated messengers :
that they may rightly lay them upon men ; and
that before thy coming again thy promise may be
abundantly fulfilled : they shall be healed: it shall
be well with them."0

•Stier>s WonT.of Jmos.

VIL

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ADVERSARY.

His testimony ought not to be cited, it will be
said, since he is " a liar and the father of it."

But if we bear in mind always who and what he
is, his witness may serve a very excellent end.
For we must know, unless we are utterly " igno-
rant of his devices," that his deceptions are
generally counterfeits of divine realities. His
business is to resist the Almighty by mimicking
his words and his works. Hence his lies are often
very serviceable as the negatives from which to
reproduce photograph's of God's truths. And if
we will notice what the adversary is especially busy
in bringing forward at any period, we may by con-
trast infer what vital doctrine or important truth
of God is struggling into recognition.

We regard this principle as so unquestionable
and so distinctly scriptural, that we are always
surprised to see Christian writers betrayed by
overlooking it. " If you credit any modern mira-

132 THE TESTIMONY

cles in God's true Church, you must logically con-
cede the genuineness of the alleged miracles of
the Romish Church " it is often confidently said.
Nay ! but have you never read of him " whose
coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders?"* The work-
ing of Anti-christ is the counterpart of the work-
ing of Christ. Not feeble, transparently false, and
contemptible are the miracles of the adversary.
" Signs and wonders," are predicted of him — the
same terms as those applied to the works of Christ.
And not only that, but " all power," is ascribed to
him — the same words employed which Christ
used at his ascension, when laying claim to uni-
versal authority. Without stopping to consider
what limitations the language may have in such
connection, its use is certainly startling and indi-
cates that the miracles of Anti-christ are likely to
be powerful and impressive, and fitted to " deceive
the very elect." But it is most illogical to con-
clude that we must believe in lying wonders, be-
cause we believe in real wonders ; and that we
must credit the miracles of the Apostate Church
because we find those which we credit in the true

* ii The»(. ii i to, is. Abo R«v. 16: 14. " Spirit* ol Derflf working miracle* "

OF THE ADVERSARY.

133

Church. We say "miracles of the Apostate
Church." The fathers and the reformers attribu-
ted actual miracles to Anti-christ, — wonders of a
superhuman character, only demoniacal instead of
divine, wrought through the agency of evil spirits
to simulate the works of the Spirit of God.* And
this view seems scriptural. In describing the
perils of the last days Paul declares concerning false
teachers that "as Jannes and Jambres withstood
Moses so do these also resist the truth." The
method of resistance which these magicians offer-
ed, it will be remembered, was to reproduce the
miracles of God's servants. When Aaron wrought
wonders with his rod "they also did in like manner
with their enchantments." Miracle was matched by
miracle, and wonder by wonder, up to the point
where God triumphed by confounding the deceiv-
ers.

So has it been with the Church of Christ all
through her history. Satan has ever been seeking
to thwart God by imitation rather than by denial.

•Augustine declares that miracles may emanate " either frotn seducing spirits
or from God himself ." Huss says, " the disciples of Anti-christ are more dis-
tinguished by miracles than those of Christ, and will be so in day* to come,—
Defence of Wickliffe, p. 115. Calvin says, " Satan perverts the things which oth-
erwise are truly works of God and miitmjUys thwocU* to vbsotre G*-ft glory"
Comment on 11. The**. 11 1 9.

134 THE TESTIMONY

And we imagine that he has done more for build
ing up his kingdom through the Papal miracle'
mongers who have claimed divine power than
through the infidel miracle-deniers who have dis-
puted it. But there have been nevertheless certain
evident tokens of spuriousness attaching to Romish
miracles, that have indicated their true character to
believers. There is a kind of Egyptian crudeness
about them which suggests the art of the sorcerer
rather than the touch of God's finger. Alleged heal-
ing by contact with the bones of dead saints : pains
assuaged by making the sign of the Cross over the
sufferer ; recoveries effected by pilgrimages to the
shrines of martyrs, and evil spirits exorcised by
the crucifix or the image of the virgin I who does
not see the vast contrast in these methods, from
the dignified and simple methods of Christ and his
Apostles ? " God never puts a man upon the stage
that Satan does not immediately bring forward an
ape," says Godet. He will approach as near the
truth as possible, and still keep to his lie. He
will give us miracles through his false prophets
that seem divine in their end and purpose, but will
always be careful to link them to some deadly su-
perstition or fatal heresy.

OF THE ADVERSARY. 1 35

We emphasize the assertion therefore that false
miracles are a testimony to the existence some
where of the true, and that we ought to be very
careful lest in our revolt from the caricature, we
swing over to a denial of the genuine.*

In our own time we have witnessed an extraor-
dinary forth-putting of satanic energy in the works
of modern spiritualism. This is a system more
versatile in uncleanness, more fertile in blasphemy,
and more prolific of adulteries, fleshly and spiritual
than any probably that has appeared for many
generations. In all its acts and exhibitions, it is
so redolent of the foul smoke of Gehenna, that it
would seem impossible that any Christian could be
deceived by it ; yet it has taken thousands of pro-
fessed disciples of Christ captive, so that they have
" gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after
the error of Baalam for reward, and perished in
the gainsaying of Core." Its manifestations arfl
characterized by just those impish, grotesque and

* "According to all evidence of Scripture there never were spurious miracles with-
out the genuine : there never were those from beneath, without those from above
at the same time. And prophecy agrees with fact. As tokens of the last day our
Lord foretells the signs and wonders of false Christs and prophets, and Joel fore-
tells true ones. Thus every counterfeit implies something counterfeited; and if
you prove counterfeit miracles, you only tell us to open our eyes the wider and
Cook for the originals." Rev. Thomas Boys. " Proofs of Miraculous Faith and
Experience of the Church." P. 1 1, w.

136 THE TESTIMONY

fantastic exhibitions, which always distinguish the
devil's work from that of Christ Its rappings
and table-tippings and materializations, and com-
munions with the dead, — what evident tokens of
perdition these should be to one who has been at
all accustomed to discriminate between divine and
satanic traits ! And yet as a competent writer de-
clares " these things are unblushingly and openly
professed and practiced by Christian men in all
lands : those who believe them to be really spirit-
ual, affirming that they are wrought by good spir-
its ; and those who disbelieve them to be the work
of spirits at all, playing with them in their unbe-
lief." Alas ! that such a system should be able to
boast of its millions of adherents, and that in those
millions thousands should be found who have borne
or still bear the name of Christ. Looking at the
matter in the light of Scripture, we know of no
more conspicuous sign of the last days and of the
"perilous times " therein predicted than this.*
Now it is well known that one of the loudest

•" Whenever these things have appeared it wu a sign of approaching doom.
When the Caaaanites practised thero the measure of their iniquity was full. When
Saul applied to the Witch of F.ndor, his end was near. When these things pre-
vailed among the Jews, their day was closing. Let us not permit such among us
lest it should become the sign to us of declension and doom"- Tract, " What m
tttttmtrum t " Ltmdtm Benvrik *nd Hitrrucn.

OF THE ADVERSARY I 3?

pretensions of spiritualism is the claim to effect
miraculous healing. It declares that Christ
wrought his cures through the agency of spirits
and that it can do the same. Hence the legion of
"healing mediums," and the innumerable "lying
wonders" by which their assumptions are enforced.
It is very natural that decent Christians in their
recoil from such revolting wonder-working, should
take the position of stout denial of all miraculous
interventions in modern times, and of any super-
natural healing. But we believe this to be an un-
worthy and unfaithful attitude. It is as though
Moses and Aaron had retreated in disgust before
Jannes and Jambres, instead of pressing on with
miracle upon miracle till they had compelled them
to surrender to the Lord of Hosts. It is as though
Paul had been ashamed of the power of the Spirit
that was in him when he met the "damsel possessed
with a spirit of divination," and had renounced his
miraculous gifts for fear of being identified with
sooth-sayers and necromancers, instead of assert-
ing his power as he did the more mightily, and
saying to the evil spirit that possessed her, "I
command thee in the name of the Lord Jesus to
come out of her."

Ij8 THE TESTIMONY

To us this outbreak of satanic empiricism* would
be a strong presumptive proof that somewhere
the Lord is reviving among his people the gifts of
divine healing : and this constant presentation of
the devil's coin would lead us to search diligently
for the genuine coin bearing Christ's own image
and superscription.

A thoughtful writer on this subject has called
attention to the fact that the era of modern spirit-
ualism covers almost exactly the era of the alleged
revival of the gifts of healing. The most striking
instances of professed miraculous cure in modern
times happened, as we have shown elsewhere,
about fifty years ago in Scotland and in England
The instances have increased and multiplied since,
till to-day the number of devout, prayerful, evan-
gelical Christians who claim to have been miracu-
lously recovered is very large, and their names are

• It U a carious fact that in the New Testament Greek, the term for sorcery is
the fame as that for drugs. For example, Rer. aa : 15. " Without are dogs and
sorcerers," Qapfiaitti pharmacists, and GaL ri : 19. — " The works of the flesh
are adultery, undeanness, laaciviousnesB, idolatry, witchcraft, jap/tama phnr.
macy. And when we think of the legion of medicine-men and medicine-women
who prey upon the sick ; the spiritualists and trance-doctors with their prescrip-
tions dictated by the dead, who swarm into the sick-rooms of our afflicted humani-
ty, as thick an the frogs of Egypt in the bed-chambers of Pharaoh, then seems to
be agransjgBafoaaawhjtbeuseof these worrfe.

OF THE ADVERSARY. 1 39

sent up from every nation where the Gospel has
been preached.

It may be that " the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience," seeing God about to put forth his
hand again in signs and wonders, and miracles of
healing, has determined, as he is wont, to thwart the
Lord by caricaturing his work, and bringing it into
contempt in the eyes of his own true people. Thus,
perhaps, he has thrown himself into the very path
which the Almighty is about to enter, that so he
may frighten his church from treading it. Or,
to state the matter as it seems to us most probable,
it may be that the adversary has seized as his most
opportune occasion a time when a belief in the
supernatural is at its lowest ebb * in the church*
and when a denial of modern miracles is well nigh
universal among the learned, and that in such a
period he is putting forth the most signal displays
of superhuman power in order to set his evil im-
press upon those who may be impressed by these

* " When men no longer believe in God they begin to believe in ghosts. In
truth there has scarcely ever been an age when men have snatched more greedily
after the extravagant than our own which derides the supernatural. " — Schenkel.
Hear also Carlyle's powerful ridicule of Paris, coating off God and running after
mesmerism, " O women I O men I great is {your infidel faith. I "-French ReTC
cattoa, p. 50.

140 THE TESTIMONY

things. Thus he is copying the Lord's own me
thod in using miracles as an evidential testimony,
only with this end, to establish " the doctrines of
devils," and to convert people to the creed of the
prince of darkness. But are we to turn against
the witness of miracles, because of this attempt to
make it perjure itself in the interest of the evil
one ? Or, to reverse the hypothesis, and suppose
that the evil one is the first to enter this field, then
comes the question with equal force, whether be-
cause of his preoccupancy we should refuse to go
into it, if God's Spirit leads the way. If Anti-
christ is about to make his mightiest and most
malignant demonstration, ought not the Church, if
the Lord will give her power, to confront him with
sweet and gracious and humble displays of the
Spirit's saving health ? Here we believe Prof.
Christlieb speaks again with true scriptural wisdom
when he says :

" In the last epoch of the consummation of the
Church she will again require for the final decisive
struggle with the powers of darkness the miraculous
interference of her risen Lord ; and hence the scrip-
tures lead us to expect miracles once more for this
period." * Meanwhile let us be careful that the

• Modem Doubt and Christian Belief, p. 3 ja.

OF THE ADVERSARY. 141

adversary does not cheat us out of our birthright.
If he has set his trade-mark on miracles, and is
using them mightily in his traffic with simple souls,
let us not make haste therefore to forfeit whatever
right and title in them the Lord has bequeathed
to us. Let us not abandon our wheat field because
the devil has sowed tares in it. The fact that he
sows tares, is his testimony to the genuineness of
the wheat.

Of course we should expect in the event of the
Church's recovery to any extent of her super-
natural gifts that the enemy would put forth re-
doubled energy to baffle and confound her. Before
a sleeping church the adversary walks very softly,
and modulates his roar to the finest tones, lest he
wake her from her slumber. But let her once rise
up and take to herself some long disused power
and he will quickly manifest himself in his old
character of " a roaring lion walking about seeking
whom he may devour."

Erskine, speaking concerning those texts which
so clearly confer miraculous gifts upon the Church,
says:

" I may here remark it, as a striking fact illus-
trative of the cunning of the prince of darkness,

14^ 7»K TESTIMONY

that he has not permitted his instruments to pres*
these texts much, nor to argue from them so tri-
umphantly as they might have done, that the
absence of miracles from the Church was a refuta-
tion of the Bible. The Bible says, " These signs
shalljollow them that believe." And yet here is a
Church holding this faith and unfollowed by these
signs. The ready conclusion from this fact cer-
tainly is that the Bible is not true ; and we might
have expected that this argument would be much
nsed by those who deny the Bible to be a divine
revelation. But it has not been much urged ; and
why ? The subtle enemy of man saw that there
was more danger to his own kingdom from the use
of this weapon than advantage. It might have
led to a result very different from that of disprov-
ing the divine authority of the Bible. There is
another conclusion to which it might have led, and
ihat is a lack of faith in the Church. And thus
the pressing of this argument might have awak-
ened the Church to a sense of her true condition ;
and this Satan fears more than the Bible, knowing
that a church asleep is the most powerful weapon
against the world, much more powerful than any
infidel arguments." *

* Brucn Serpent, p. 104.

OF THE ADVERSARY.

H3

Awake, then, oh Church ! Put on thy strength !
Awake indeed to evil surmisings and contempt
and opprobrium. For none ever yet escaped these
things in attempting to revive a forgotten truth.
But these may be tokens of the Lord's favor.
Certainly they are not the credentials of a slumber-
ing and world-pleasing church. At all events, let
us fear them less than that other alternative, that
the heathen shall cry "Where is thy God?" and
none shall be able to answer "Jehovah Rophi is
with us."

VIII.

THE TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.

" Prove me now herewith " is the challenge which
the Lord has given in his word ; and there are
many in the present generation who have accepted
and tested his challenge on the promises of bodily
recovery.

We wish in this chapter to consider the experi-
ences and testimony of certain, who within our
own times have exercised a ministry of healing.
Let us not be misunderstood. We do not attribute
to any man the power of curing sickness, though
we think many are called to be instruments to that
end. A physician is a mediator between nature
and our suffering humanity. And his skill depends
solely upon his ability to interpret and apply the
laws of health to the sick, and to bring the sufferer
into contact with the recuperative forces of the nat-
ural world. In like manner if the primitive "gifts of
healing " are still bestowed in the Church, as we
believe, those endowed with them have power only

OF EXPERIENCE, 145

through the mediation of their faith and prayers.
We are told that Paul entered into the house of
Publius, and, finding his father sick, " prayed and
laid his hands on him and healed him." But we do
not understand from this that the apostle had any
inherent personal power to heal disease ; else why
did he pray ? Prayer is touching the hem of
Christ's garment by the human intercessor, while in
the laying on of hands he at the same moment
touches the body of the sufferer. It is simply, in
a word, the repetition of what was done again and
again during the earthly ministry of our Lord, the
bringing of the sick to Jesus for healing and cleans-
ing. " Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though
by our own power or holiness we had made this
man to walk ? " asks Peter of those who were won-
dering at the miracle at the Beautiful Gate. If it
were a question of human power or holiness we
might be quite ready to relegate the gifts of heal-
ing to the apostolic age, confessing our utter lack
of these qualifications. But since it is a question
of the power and holiness of "Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever," it is quite
another matter. " If thou canst believe " is the ques-
tion now. " A year famous for believing," is the

I46 THE TESTIMONY

language in which Romaine designated a certain
unusual twelvemonth of his ministry. If such a
year should be graciously injected into the calen-
dar of any Christian life it would be a year of
Success. For believing is knowing God and find-
rig the depths of power and privilege that are
nidden for us in him : and " the people that do
know their God shall be strong and do exploits "
says the scripture.*

Now, there have been some in our day who have
had faith to take the Lord at his word in connec-
tion with the promises of healing. And having,
as they believed, proved him, and found him faith-
ful, their testimony will be deeply instructive to
our readers.

Dorothea Trudel is a name especially honored
in this relation. The story of her life and labors
in connection with the home for invalids in the
Swiss village of Mannedorf on Lake Zurich has
been very widely read, and has caused great
searchings of heart in many who have pondered
it.f The Lord provides deep roots when there
are to be wide-spreading branches. And this life
whose boughs 60 ran over the wall, and stretched

•Dm. ii : ja.
t Dorothea Trudel, or The Prayer of Faith. London : Morgan and Scott.

OF EXPERIENCE. 147

beyond the bounds of ordinary service, was un-
usually rooted and established.

The mother from whom she received her birth and
early training was so remarkable for her faith and
consecration that, though living in the utmost
obscurity and poverty, her biography has been
placed among those of the illustrious Christian
women of the ages.* The wife of a brutal and
godless husband, and so cut off from human sym-
pathy that there was none but God to whom she
could appeal in her need, she was schooled by
this bitter tuition into a life of faith and absolute
dependence on God. She looked to Him for food
for her family when they must otherwise have
starved ; for deliverance when they must other-
wise have perished ; for healing when they must
otherwise have died. Dorothea grew up with per-
petual exhibitions before her eye of the Lord's
restoring of the sick for a poor household which
could employ no other physician. The faith which
it is so difficult for us to recover was her native in-
heritance. Hence what we doubt so painfully
whether we may do, she bitterly condemned her-

* Consecrated Women. London: Hodder and Stoughten.

US THE TESTIMONY

self for not doing when she had subsequently
neglected it.

After her parents had died we find her engaged
in labors of love among the working people ; teach-
ing them the gospel, and seeking to lead them to
the Saviour. How her personal use of the prayer
of faith begun in connection with these labors she
tells in the following words :

" Four of them fell ill, and, as each could do as
he pleased, all four summoned a doctor. It was
remarked, however, that they got worse after
taking the medicine, until, at last, the necessity
became so pressing that / went as a worm to the
Lord, and laid our distress before him. I told him
how willingly I would send for an elder, as is com-
manded in James v., but, as there was not one, I
must go to my sick ones in the faith of the Canaan-
it is h woman, and, without trusting to any vittue in
my hand, I would lay it upon them. I did so, and,
by the Lo>d's blessing, all four recovered. Most
powerfully then did the sin of disobeying God's
word strike me, and most vividly did the simple
life of faith, the carrying out just what God orders,
stand before me."

Soon after she gave herself wholly to the Mas-
ter's work ; and as the effects of her evangel-
istic efforts, and the answers to her earnest pray-
ers were noticed, she was importuned to receive
patients into her house. Consenting reluctantly

OF EXPERIENCE. \A&

the life-work thus began, from which was to flow
such a blessing to the souls and bodies of men.

Her methods were very simple : the Bible and
prayer were her medicines. She dealt with the
soul first, using every effort to bring it to faith and
obedience to the Gospel ; she prayed for the body,
laying hands on the sick and anointing them with
oil in the name of the Lord. In all this she rec-
ognized the necessity of the most absolute conse-
cration on her part and that of her helpers, and of
the most surrendering faith on the part of the
sick. Very beautifully does she thus speak of the
believer's privilege : —

" In the New Testament we are called kings, and
priests. Power accompanied the anointing of the
kings, and if we really belong to the kingly
priesthood shall not strength to heal the sick by
prayer come on us also through the anointing of
the Spirit? If we only wear our Levite dress, and
are consecrated in soul and body — if we are only
prepared to be vessels of his grace — it is his part
to bless. Oh, that we were willing not to do more
than God would have us do, then would this day
be one of great reviving to us ! "

Thus her work was inaugurated, and thus was

she inducted by unseen hands into her remarkable

ministry.

i5o

THE TESTIMONY

Rarely have we traced the story of a life whose
consecration was so even and unreserved. Among
the sayings which she left on record is this. ' ' The
heart ought not to be an inn where the Lord some-
times comes, but a home where he always abides."
It was her calling for many years to keep an inn
where the sick could lodge, a hospice into which
the suffering and distracted wanderer could turn
for solace. These came and went with the recur-
ring months, but so constantly was the Lord abiding
with her, that it might be said according to Luth-
er's beautiful simile that the way-farer coming
and knocking at her heart and asking " who lives
here ? " would hear the instant answer from within,
"Jesus Christ." Not that she ever claimed as
much ; for none was ever more humble and self de-
preciatory ; but her life declared it. It comes out
in her biography that her prayers were sometimes
prolonged into midnight : that her soul so wrought
with intense desire that often the sweat would
stand in beads upon her forehead. Once in busy
labors among the sick she passed the whole day
without food, utterly forgetting the claims of na-
'.ure in her absorbing devotion to her work ; and
\l»»u finding it impossible to get food on account of

OF EXPERIENCE. 1 5 1

the lateness of the hour she falls at Jesus' feet,
and begs for that meat that the world knows not
of, and is so refreshed and filled that she goes all
night in the strength of it.

Such rare and Christ-like consecration has always
proved an apt soil for the manifestation of the mi-
raculous ; especially when chastened and fertilized
by bitter persecutions. And this token which the
Scripture promises to " all who will live godly in
Christ Jesus " was not wanting to her, as the spirit
to endure it with unresenting meekness was not
wanting. "I have had enemies," she writes "both
known and unknown in crowds ; and thickly scat-
tered falsehoods and slanders were no pleasant por-
tion. I write this with the feeling that whoever
cannot bear, without emotion, even the blackest
falsehoods and slanders has yet to experience
something of the peace of God which is like an
ocean without bounds." Medical men and others
conceived great hostility to her, and sought to con-
vict her of mal-practice in the courts ; though it
was shown in testimony that most of her patients
were such as had spent all their living upon physi-
cians only to be made worse ; and that the only

152 THE TESTIMONY

medicine she employed was prayer. Speaking of

this adversity she says : —

" But a storm was now to burst over the work ;
for in 1856 when the second house was filled with
invalids, and the Lord was working mightily we
were fined sixty francs, and were ordered to send
away all the patients by a certain time. Though
it was the most grevious day of my life I obeyed
the command ; but the houses so hastily emptied,
filled as fast as ever with the blind, the lame, and
the deaf, for whom the Lord did great things.
Evil spirits were cast out of some of the invalids
by prayer, and the sufferer became instantly free.
Many were delivered from the power of darkness
which had been exercised over their minds, though
less visibly and outwardly and received what we
consider the highest and best blessing, that of
being changed from wolves into lambs."

In 1 861 a second persecution was raised against
this most saintly and inoffensive woman. At the
instigation of a physician, the magistrates imposed
a heavy fine upon her, and ordered her patients to
be sent away. Then, through appeal to a higher
tribunal, her case was brought into court, and the
world was made acquainted through the testimo-
ny of scores of living witnesses, with the won-
derful work which God had wrought through her
prayers.

Mr. Spondlin an eminent advocate of Zurich

OF EXPERIENCE. 1 53

volunteered to conduct her case; Prelate Von
Kopff, Prof. Tholuck and many others were wit-
nesses on her behalf, and the result was that she
was fully acquitted and left undisturbed in her gra-
cious work. Henceforth her house which had too
often through the malice of enemies been a Betha-
ven " house of affliction," became only a Bethesda
"house of mercy." If her own simple record,
confirmed by the word of scores who bore testi-
mony at her trial, could prove that miracles of heal-
ing were wrought in her house, the fact must be
considered as established.

With a deep conviction that sin is often the hid-
den root of sickness, she dealt most earnestly with
the souls of her patients. "Confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another that ye
may be healed" was an injunction that had a deeply
practical meaning to her, and often conviction and
conversion were the first symptoms of physical
convalescence.

" On one occasion a young artisan arrived, in
whom cancer had made such progress as to render
any approach to him almost unbearable. At the
Bible lessons this once frivolous man, now an ear-
nest inquirer, learned where the improvement
must begin ; and from the day that he confessed
his sins against God and man, the disease abated

154 THE TESTIMONY

Some time afterwards he acknowledged one sin he
had hitherto concealed, and then he speedily re-
covered his bodily health and returned to his home
cured in spirit also."

In some instances her prayers and her eager
seeking for the will of God were long continued be-
fore any sign of recovery was manifested, in others
healing was vouchsafed at once.

" A lady in S. had so injured her knee by a fall,
that for weeks she lay in the greatest agony. The
doctor declared that dropsy would supervene, but
the heavenly physician fulfilled those promises
which will abide until the end of the world, and by
prayer and the laying on of Dorothea's hands, the
knee was cured in twenty-four hours, and the swell-
ing vanished."

One giving an account of her arraignment
says : —

" During the course of the trial, authenticated
cures were brought forward, it is said, to the num-
ber of some hundreds. There was one of a stiff
knee, that had been treated in vain by the best
physicians in France, Germany, and Switzerland;
and one of an elderly man who could not walk,
and had also been given up by his physicians, but
who soon dispensed with his crutches ; a man

OF EXPERIENCE. 155

came with a burned foot, and the surgeons said it
was a case for " either amputation or death," and
he also was cured ; one of the leading physicians
of Wurtemburg testified to the cure of a hopeless
patient of his own ; another remained six weeks,
and says he saw all kinds of sicknesses healed. Can-
cer and fever have been treated with success ; epi-
lepsy and insanity more frequently than any other
forms of disease."

Such was the ministry of healing and comfort
carried on by this holy woman till the day when
she fell asleep in Jesus, and such was the blessed
example which she left behind her.

Travellers tell us of a deep and secluded lake in
Switzerland in whose crystal mirror the reflection
of distant mountains may be seen, though the
mountains themselves are not visible to the eye.
In the tranquil, hidden life of this Swiss peasant
girl, the image of the invisible Saviour was clearly
mirrored, and how many of those who knew her in
life, and of those who have read the story of her
consecration since her death have therefrom caught
a reflected glimpse of the unseen Redeemer, and
been quickened with new love to him, and a new
sense of his present power.

Samuel Zeller took up the work at Mannedorf as
it dropped from the dead hands of sister Dorothea.
He is the son of the founder of a well-known boys'

1J6 THE TESTIMOATY

reformatory at Beuggen, near Basle, and brother-

in-law of Gobat, late bishop at Jerusalem. He
had been a co-laborer at the home before the death
of its founder, and with much prayer that the gifts
of faith and of healing might rest upon him she
had committed the work to his care. Since her
death the institution has continued with no appar-
ent loss of power or usefulness under his direction,
he being aided by Miss Zeller, his sister, and by
several devoted assistants. All the helpers, even
to the servants, render their service as a labor of
love, in grateful return in most cases for the re-
covery which they have received at this home.

Mr. Zeller is a fervent evangelist, going out in
every direction preaching the word, as well as
laboring " in season out of season " for the souls
and bodies of those who come under his care.
From two houses the home has grown to ten, and
they are always filled with patients, from many
nations. The same methods are employed as un-
der his predecessor. He lays hands upon the sick ;
he anoints with oil in the name of the Lord, and
pleads the promise given in James, 5th chapter ;
and his reports published year by year are full of
striking instances alike of healing and of conver-
sion.

OF EXPERIENCE. 1 5 7

He entertains no extravagant views of his
mission. Holding most tenaciously to the per-
petuity of the promise : " The prayer of faith
shall save the sick" he yet strongly recognizes
the sovereignty of God in the answer. To the
question asked by a recent visitor, whether it is
not God's will that all his children should be
free from sickness, he replied that it is evidently
the Father's will that some should overcome
sickness, and he quoted significantly the words
of Heb. xi. chap. : Some, " through faith, sub-
dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched
the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of
the aliens ; Women received their dead raised
to life again; and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain
a better resurrection. And others had trial of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of
bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned,
they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain
with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-
skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tor-

1$8 TUB TESTIMONY

mented (of whom the world was not worthy) ; they
wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens
and caves of the earth. And these all having
obtained a good report through faith," &c.

A visit to this home was made a few years since
by several eminent German preachers and profes-
sors, and when one of these was asked his opinion of
the work he answered; "Where the Holy Spirit
speaks with so much power, we can do no other
wise than listen to his teaching ; critical analysis
is out of the question." A quiet and deep spirit-
ual life, a profound faith in the promises of God,
and a humble and self-denying surrender to his
word and will are the traits which have character-
ized the work from the beginning until the present
time. The cases of recovery at Mannedorf are so
fully given in the report of the home that we need
not here reproduce them.

Pastor Blumhardt exercising his ministry in the
small Lutheran village of Mottlingen, in the heart
of the Black Forest in Germany is another, who
was greatly honored of God in his prayers of faith.
He died quite recently, but during many years
of his active pastorate he was credited with extra-
ordinary grace in praying for the sick. Like otlv

OF EXPERIENCE. 159

ers of whom we have spoken he had the ministry
of healing thrust upon him. He first became
known for his unusual consecration, and for his
zeal and ability in stirring up formal Christians to
renewed activity. He prayed for the diseased with
such efficacy, and such well attested cures were
reported from his intercessions, that very soon he
was resorted to by the suffering from every direc-
tion. His home and neighborhood became a hos-
pital, where not only invalids, but sorrowing and
sin-sick souls came for counsel and help. One
writing of him says, "as regards Blumhardt and
his work, it may emphatically be said that the
pleasure of the Lord prospered in his hands." He
seems to have taken no pains to report his success,
having evidently learned the secret that "the way
to have a strong faith is to think nothing of your-
self." But others praised him if not his own lips,
and he became widely known throughout his coun-
try as a pastor who considered the sick bodies of
his flock to be under his ministration as well as
the sick souls.

We give one instance from the life of Blumhardt,
to show the vast influence which a striking exhibi-
tion of miraculous power may exert upon the spir-
itual life of a people.

160 THE TEST/ATONY

On commencing his ministry in Mottlingen he
found the place fearfully given over to infidelity
and sensuality. As his fervent preaching began
to tell upon the community, Satan seemed to come
in, with great wrath to resist him. A case occurred
in the village which exactly resembled the instances
of demoniacal possession recorded in scripture. The
woman thus afflicted endured the most excruciating
agony. The Pastor being called in was quite appalled,
having never seen anything of the kind ; and in his
perplexity was inclined to be excused from inter-
fering with it. But some of his brethren in the
Church who had listened to his strong utterances
on the subject of the prayer of faith, came to him
saying. " If you do not wish to shake our belief
in your preaching you cannot retreat before the
evil one." After a moment's thought, and silent
prayer he answered : " You are right ; but to be in
accord with the word of God you must also unite
with me in supplication according to James v : 14."
What followed appears from the following account
by his friend Pastor Spittler. He says : —

" Kindly permit me not to mention in this place
the frightful details of her sufferings. The medi-
cal man who attended the person was perfectly at
a loss as to the case. He said, ' Is there no cler

OF EXPERIENCE. l6l

gyman in this village who can pray ? I can do
nothing here.' The minister (Blumhardt) who had
then the spiritual care of the village felt the force
of such a reproach, joined as it was to that of his
believing people. He went to the house in the
strength of faith. The more frightful the mani-
festations of the destroying power of Satan be-
came, with the more unshaken faith in the all-over-
coming power of the living God, that pastor con-
tinued to struggle against the assaults of the
infernal powers, till at last, after a tremendous
outcry of the words, f Jesus is Victor ! Jesus is
Victor ! ' heard almost throughout the whole little
village, the person found herself freed from all the
dreadful chains under which she had sighed so long,
and often come to the very brink of death."

" That voice, ' Jesus is Victor ! ' sounded like a
trumpet of God through the village. After a
week one man of very loose and deceitful charac-
ter, whom the pastor on that account felt almost
afraid of approaching, came trembling and pale to
Blumhardt into his study, and said, ' Sir, is it then
possible that / can be pardoned and saved ? I
have not slept for a whole week, and if my heart
be not eased, it will kill me.' He made an aston-
ishing confession of iniquity, which for the first
time opened the pastor's eyes to the multitude and
enormity of sins prevailing among the people.
The pastor prayed with him and put Christ before
him, in his readiness to pardon even the vilest of
sinners that would come to him for mercy. When
the man seemed completely cast down and almost
in despair, Blumhardt found it his duty, as an am-
bassador of Christ, solemnly to assure him of God's
mercy in Jesus Christ ; and lo ! immediately his

162 TUB TESTIMONY

countenance was changed, beaming with joy and
gratitude.

"The first thing which the man now did was to
go to his fellow-sinners, from cottage to cottage,
and tell them what he had just experienced. First
they were astonished, and could not understand
it; yet they saw the marvellous change in him.
He urged them to go to the minister about their
souls ; some he even dragged as it were in triumph
to the manse, till about twenty persons were in the
same way convinced of sin, and found grace and
forgiveness in Jesus."*

Then follows the account of a most gracious and
wide-spread revival. The whole village became a
Bochim. With tears and lamentations the people
came confessing their sins, and inquiring the way
of escape from the wrath of God that was resting
upon them. The Pastor's house was besieged from
morning to night with penitents, so that within
two months, as he declared, there were not twenty
persons in the place who had not come to him be-
wailing their sins and finding peace in Jesus
Christ. The transformation which resulted was
hardly less wonderful than that which occurred
in Kidderminster under the preaching of Richard
Baxter. The story gives a most striking indica-
tion of what might result even now, under the
preaching of the gospel "with signs following."

* PMtor BlumhawU and His Work. — London. Morgan and Scott.

OF EXPERIENCE. 163

" The soul is the life of the body ; faith is the
life of the soul ; Christ is the life of faith " — so
wrote the good John Flavel ; and thus he traced
very obviously and directly the course through
which Christ the Redeemer acts upon the human
body.

Pastor Otto Stockmayer might be fitly named,
the theologian of the doctrine of healing by faith.
He has given some very subtle, not to say bold and
startling expositions of the relation of sin and sick-
ness. " The soul is the life of the body," and the
Lord does not intend that his saving and sanctifying
ministry shall stop with the regeneration and re-
newal of the soul, is Stockmayer's strongly asserted
doctrine. Attaching great weight to the words of
Scripture which declare that Christ, "healed all
that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by Esaias the prophet saying, himself took
our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" he rea-
sons that if our Redeemer bore our sicknesses it
is not his will that his children should remain un-
der the power of disease, any more than that
having borne our sins it is his will that they should
remain under condemnation and disobedience. He
says: —

I&4 THE TESTIMONY

" Once understanding that it is not the will of God
that his children should be sick (James v: 14-18),
and that Christ has redeemed us from our sickness
as from our sins, (Matt viii: 16, 17), we can no
longer look upon healing as a right which it would
be lawful for us to renounce. It is no longer a
question whether we wish to be healed, God's will
must be fulfilled in our bodies as well as in our
souls. Our beloved Lord must not be robbed of a
part of the heritage of his agony.

It is by virtue of a divine will that the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ has sanctified us (Heb.
x: 10), which means that Christ by his death has
withdrawn the members of our body, with our
entire being, from every sacrilegious end or use.
He has regained and consecrated them for his own
exclusive and direct use.

Wrested by Christ's ransom from all foreign
power, from the power of sin or of sickness or of
the devil, our members must remain intact, sur-
rendered to him who has redeemed them.

"Let my people go " was God's word to Pharaoh,
and such is God's command to sin and sickness,
and to Satan : " Let my people go that they may
serve me.

Thus God's children must not seek the healing
of the body without taking at the same time by
faith, all the new position which Christ's redemp-
tion gives us — and which is expressed in these
words of Moses to Pharaoh: or better still in
Paul's words (2 Cor. v: 14, 15), which amounts to
this — Nothing more for self, but all for Christ.
Before seeking freedom from sickness we must lay
hold of the moral freedom which the Redemption
of Christ has obtained for us, and by which we arc

Of EXPERIENCE. l6$

cut off from any self-seekiag : from the seeking of
our own will, our own life, our own interests, or
our own glory. Our members are henceforth
Christ's, and neither for ourselves or for our mem-
bers, but for Christ and for his members we desire
health. We knew none other but Christ."

This in brief is the doctrine of Pastor Stock-
mayer as set forth in a tract entitled "Sickness and
the Gospel,"* which has passed through many edi-
tions and been very widely read. As the minister
of a Christian flock his practice has conformed to
his teaching. He has used the same methods as
those employed at Mannedorf ; and he has now a
home in Hauptwiel Thurgan Switzerland for the
reception of such as desire to be healed through
prayer.

Pastor Rein is another of the same group of
primitive teachers and ministers. He was greatly
esteemed while living, and it is only a few years
since he fell asleep. He began his service in
the gospel as a decided formalist. But shutting
himself up to the Bible and determining to shape
his ministry rigidly by its teachings without regard
to tradition, a great change came over him. He
now abandoned the habit of reading prayers at the
bedside of the sick, and began to pour out petf

* Partridge and Co., I/andou.

l66 THE TESTIMONY

tions directly from the heart. Later he felt con-
strained to use the practise of laying hands on
them while praying, according to the word of the
Lord in Mark xvi Still later he began to anoint
with oil in the name of the Lord in connection
with his praying for the sick, carrying out strictly
the directions given in the Epistle of James. His
ministry seems to have been as conspicuous for its
humility as for its zeal and consecration ; and dili-
gent care for the welfare of others so marked his
course, that he may be said to have illustrated the
maxim that " true humility consists not so much
in thinking meanly of ourselves as in not thinking
of ourselves at all."

From a very tender tribute to his life which
recently appeared we make the following extract : *

"When sick people were brought to him he re-
ceived them as sent by the Lord. Much blessing
and consolation was found in the silence and retire-
ment of the simple cure of Pastor Rein. He loved
to work for the kingdom of God in self-renuncia-
tion, and always in silence, without show, and he
always shrank from being spoken of. Oh how
blessed it is when the word of God accompanied
with prayer is used as the medicine of the body as
well as soul.

Rein never employed a doctor, believing in

• See Israel's Watchman, Aug. 187&

OF EXPERIENCE. 167

the words of Exodus xv : 26. " I am the Lord that
healeth thee," or as it is in many translations " I
am the Lord thy physician. When he was ill the
elders of his Church or his friends laid hands on
him, and prayed over him, and he was always bet-
ter than if he had taken medicine ; he was kept in
a greater calm, and his communion with God was
not interrupted by the doctors' visits, and by the
continual occupation of punctually following their
directions. He lived in such intimate relation with
God that he asked him for all he wanted, the great-
est and the least things alike. This was why he
could not except even healing, and he shrunk from
seeking any help but that which came directly
from God.

He was jealous for God that he alone should
have the glory. That which grieved him deeply
was to see how little glory is given to God in gene-
ral, and especially in the cure of illness, which is
attributed generally to doctors or to medicine.
Thus he would not allow any remedy to come be-
tween him and his God, and he rejoiced with all
his heart when he saw others leave the old track
of this world's laws of prudence, to follow the path
of an obedient and unreserved faith.

When he prayed over and laid hands on the sick
he watched attentively for a knowledge of God's
will regarding the person whom he was occu-
pied with, and always besought him to reveal t<?
him, whether the sickness was unto death, or
whether it was rather a merciful visitation, sent to
lead the subject of it to reflection; and he prayed
accordingly.

This confidence in God, which made him re-
nounce all human means in illness, caused him to

1 68 THE TESTIMONY

be much criticised. But we must say to his honor,
that Rein was extremely charitable towards others,
never seeking to put a yoke upon them or to lay
down the law to them, in that which he looked
upon as a permission, a precious grace from on
high.

He never regarded it as a sin in any one to take
medicine, or to consult a doctor, when they had
not the special faith to do without them ; a faith
which very precious as it is, is not necessary for
salvation. Who can find fault with such as de-
clare, like Rein, that they cannot do otherwise than
commit themselves solely to God in all things,
even for bodily health, and that they esteem as
happy those who can do the same.

He was actuated by a holy jealousy, when he
heard the signs which should follow them that
believe, (Mark xvi : 17, 18), spoken of as belong-
ing only to Apostolic times, instead of its being
recognized, that it is owing to the decline of faith
that these signs no longer exist. It has been said
that " Faith is God's power placed at mans dispo-
sition." So he believed, and on this principle he
acted."

Several interesting incidents of recovery under
his prayers are given in connection with this sketch
of his life, but they are of the same type as those
elsewhere recorded, and we will not reproduce
them.

Among other Evangelists and pastors abroad,
who hold the same faith and practice as these we
may mention Lord Radstock of England. A very

OF EXPERIENCE. 169

devoted and deeply spiritual man he is known to
be by all who have come in contact with him.
And many who have never seen him have read
with interest of his evangelistic work among
the higher ranks especially in Russia and Sweden.
Writing to the London "Christian" concerning
his work in the latter country, he sends reports of
several very striking instances of cure in answer
to prayer and says : —

" One interesting feature of the Lord's grace in
Stockholm is the obedience of faith with which
several pastors and elder brethren have accepted
their privilege of anointing the sick and praying
over them in the name of the Lord. There have
been many remarkable instances of God's gracious
healing. I enclose details of a few cases, that
God's children may be encouraged to see that God
Vias not withdrawn the promise in James v : 15,
and that it is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man."

In America there are several homes for healing
conducted on the same principle as that of Miss
Trudel. Quite a number of them are under the
direction of pious women, who have learned the
secret of the prayer of faith. We have only space
to refer to one work which is most widely known
through its published reports, and of which, from

170 THE TESTIMONY.

his near neighborhood to it, the writer has had an
excellent opportunity to judge.

Dr. Charles Cullis is at the head of what is
known as the "Faith- work" in the City of Boston
The work has many branches, the Consumptive's
Home; the Willard Tract Repository; homes foi
children; city mission work; foreign missionary
work; schools among the freedmen, etc., all main-
tained upon the same principle virtually as the
orphan work of Pastor George Muller, at Bristol
in England. Any one who has been made ac-
quainted with a single department of this enter-
prise, as for example, that of the Consumptive's
Home, can have no doubt as to the most beneficent
and Christ-like character of the labors there carried
on.

Dr. Cullis has for several years been accustomed
when applied to, to minister to the sick in the
manner above described. And there are among
us many unimpeachable witnesses to the answers
which have been granted for the recovery from
disease. The writer is well acquainted with quite
a number of these, some of several years' standing,
and has no hesitation in saying that they bear
every evidence of genuineness. How Dr. Cullis

OF EXPERIENCE. I?I

was led to exercise this ministry is best told in his
own words which we extract from his published
report called " Faith cures."

"For several years my mind had been exercised
before God as to whether it was not his will that
the work of faith in which he had placed me,
should extend to the cure of disease, as well as
the alleviation of the miseries of the afflicted. I
often read the instructions and promise contained
in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the fifth
chapter of the epistle of James."

They seemed so very plain, that I often asked of
my own heart, why, if I can rely on God's word,
"whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I
do," and every day verify its truth in the supply of
the daily needs of the various work committed to
my care, — why can not I also trust him to fulfil
his promises as to the healing of the body. " The
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up ? I could not see why with
such explicit and unmistakable promises, I should
limit the present exercise of God's power. I be-
gan to inquire of earnest Christians whether they
knew of any instances of answer to prayer for the
healing of the body. Soon afterwards the "Life of
Dorothea Trudell" fell into my hands, which
strengthened my convictions, and the inquiry
arose, "If God can perform such wonders in Man-
nedorf, why not in Boston ? "

At this time I had under my professional care
a Christian lady, with a tumor which confined her
almost continuomsly to her bed in severe suffering.
All remedies were unavailing, and the only human
hope was the knife : but feeling in my heart the

172 THE TESTIMONY

power of the promise, I one morning sat down by
her bedside, and taking up the Bible, I read aloud
God's promise to his believing children ; " and the
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall faise him up ; and if he have cotnmitted sins,
they shall be forgiven him**

" I then asked her if she would trust the Lord to
remove this tumor and restore her to health, and
to her missionary work. She replied ' I have no
particular faith about it, but am willing to trust the
Lord for it.'

I then knelt and anointed her with oil in the
name of the Lord, asking him to fulfil his own
word. Soon after I left, she got up and walked
three miles. From that time the tumor rapidly
lessened, until all trace of it at length disappeared. '

The work thus begun has gone on now, for quite
a number of years, and we think there can be no
reasonable doubt that in Boston as well as in Man-
nedorf and in Mottlingen there has been a living
and repeated demonstration that God is still pleased
to recover the sick directly and manifestly in an-
swer to his people's intercessions.

If these things be so, can any say that we have
not reason to praise God and rejoice with new joy
in him : —

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
Who healeth all thy diseases.?"

"Any explanation but the admission of the mi-
raculous " is the cry which an unbelieving world

OF EXPERIENCE. 1 73

raises when anything wonderful happens. And
Christians more solicitous for their caution than for
their faith, have sometimes joined in the cry. And
thus the seal of the supernatural has been assidu-
ously witheld we fear, where it should have been
permitted to place its impress and testimony. But
we do not, so much call attention to these instances
of healing as to these examples of faith. There
may be mistakes in the estimates put upon the
cures, but can there be any in the sure word of
promise ? If any of these testimonies of recovery
should prove ill-founded, it would only demonstrate
the ignorance of men. But God hath in the last
days spoken to us by his Son and "he that receiveth
his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true**

IX.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE HEALED.

" One thing I know, that whereas I was blind J
now see." This confession of experience has al-
ways been regarded as the strongest that can be
made. The " I know " indeed may seem to savor
of egotism and assurance. But let us not forget
that while the egotism of opinion is always offen-
sive, the egotism of experience can never be re-
buked. It is the highest attainment of mere
human thought and speculation to know that one
does not know. Hence very fittingly we have the
culture of our age graduating in agnosticism,
which is knowledge culminating in ignorance, as
the highest mountain peaks are lost in the clouds.
On the other hand, when we read the opening
words of John's first epistle, "That which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the word of life," we are not surprised at the
writer's constant use of the words " we know," or
that he is able to say "Hereby we do know that we
know him"

OF THE HEALED. 175

Experience is the surest touch-stone of truth.
It is not always infallible, indeed ; especially
when it deals with our spiritual states and
conditions. For these are often deceptive and
difficult to interpret. But certainly one ought to
know when an infirmity which has long oppressed
the body has been removed, or when a pain that
has incessantly tortured the nerves has ceased.
This is a kind of testimony which is not easily
ruled out of court.

And there are many who stand ready to give in
this witness. Ought we to refuse to hear it, or to
dismiss it as visionary and idle talk? We are
quite accustomed to accept what we call a religious
experience as a test of fitness for church member-
ship. Is it less difficult to recognize and interpret
a physical experience?

Let us listen to the statements of some who
have told the story of their bodily healing. We
cite as our first example that of Miss Fancourt, of
London, the daughter of an English clergyman,
whose case created no small interest at the time of
its publication.

The story of her sickness is too long to be given
in detail. Suffice it to say that she was attacked

Ij6 THE TESTIMONY

with severe hip disease in Nov., 1822. From this
date till 1828 she was a constant sufferer, not only
from the disease itself, but from the varied oper-
ations of leeches, blisters, bleedings, and cuttings
of the surgeon's knife, and all to no effect. From
this period onward for two years she was a helpless
cripple, for most of the time confined to her bed.
The story of her recovery we give in her owr
words :

"Thus it continued till the 20th of October,
1830, when a kind friend who had seen me about
two months before had been led by God to pray
earnestly for my recovery, remembering what is
written, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, be*
lieving, ye shall receive.' He asked in faith, and
God graciously answered his prayer. On Wednes-
day night, my friend being about to leave the
room, Mr. J. begged to be excused a short time.
Sitting near me, we talked of his relations and of
the death of his brother ; rising, he said : ' they
will expect me at supper,' and put out his hand.
After asking some questions respecting the dis-
ease, he added, . ' it is melancholy to see a person
so constantly confined.' I answered ' it is sent in
mercy.' ' Do you think so ? Do you not think
the same mercy could restore you ? ' God gave
me faith and I answered 'yes.' ' Do you believe
Jesus could heal, as in old times?' 'Yes.' 'Do
you believe it is only unbelief that prevents it ? '
' Yes.' ' Do you believe that Jesus could heal you
at this very time ? ' ' Yes, —Between these ques-

OF THE HEALED. 1 77

tions he was evidently engaged in prayer. — 'Then '
he added, ' rise up and walk : come down to your
family.' He then had hold of my hand ; he prayed
to God to glorify the name of Jesus. I rose from
my couch quite strong. God took away all my
pains, and we walked down stairs, Mr. J. praying
most fervently, ' Lord have mercy upon us ; Christ
have mercy on us.' Having been down a short
time, finding my handkerchief left on the couch,
taking the candle I fetched it. The next day I
walked more than a quarter of a mile ; and on
Sunday from the Episcopalian chapel, a distance
of one mile and a quarter. Up to this time God
continues to strengthen me, and I am perfectly
well. To Jesus be all the glory. Nov. 13, 1830."*

We have the added information that this long

suffering invalid continued to be well, and that the

story of her healing, so soon as it went abroad,

drew down upon her and her family a most violent

storm of ridicule and obloquy. By the religious

press which took up the matter the story was

treated as a gross scandal upon the Christian faith,

and so bitter were the reflections upon the parties

involved that the venerable father of the lady,

though hitherto a confessed disbeliever in modern

miracles, felt called upon to publish his emphatic

confirmation of the story. The following is the

statement of Rev. Mr. Fancourt :

* Mrs. Oliphant's Life of Edward Irving, p. 461,

178 THE TESTIMONY

"Under this peculiar dispensation of mercy
there rests on ray mind a solemn conviction that
the glory of God and the interest of religion are
deeply involved in the publicity which it will prob-
ably acquire. But without shrinking from the re-
sponsibility attached to the declaration, I profess
myself ready to bear my open testimony to a
notable fact, namely; that as I view it God has
raised an impotent cripple, in the person of my
youngest daughter, to instantaneous soundness of her
bodily limbs by faith in the name of Jesus, being
taught by her mother church to know and feel that
there is none other name under heaven given to
man in whom and through whom she could receive
health and salvation, but only the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In this faith, through the
instrumentality of the effectual fervent prayer of
a righteous man (for God heareth not sinners),
which availeth much, God has done exceeding
abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
I am aware that there are questions of difficult
solution as to the instrumentality by which the
benefit has been bestowed ; but who would not
tremble at the fearful conclusion which would re-
sult from a denial of the divine interposition ?
Deprecating such a thought, I feel persuaded that
they are most on the side of truth and soberness
who unite with us in telling the church that God
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad,
which in their first communication made us like
them that dream."

We cannot help pausing upon the lesson sug-
gested by this incident. Strange, it might be said,
that the sufferer should be grudged her releas*

OF THE HEALED. 1 79

from pain and helplessness. If a supernatural
cure could not be admitted, it would seem that at
least none would envy her the harmless illusion.
Yet has it not been so from the beginning ? " We
must admit any solution rather than a miracle,"
said the "Christian Observer," commenting on
this cure. And we remember that the wise Jews
said about the healing of another cripple, "that
indeed a notable miracle has been done by them
is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem,
and we cannot deny it" as if to say "we have done
our best to disprove it." Evidently our Lord an-
ticipated this treatment of miracles of healing
when he introduced them ; for he said "Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see :
the blind receive their sight and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead
are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel
preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me." — The last thing, it
would seem, at which the world should take of-
fence. That the prison doors should be opened,
and light and sound be let in upon poor immured
and darkened souls; that lame feet wearily
dragged by bodies which they were made to bear

iSO THE TESTIMONY

op should be rendered whole and elastic by the
healer's touch ; that lepers should be released from
their ghastly malady, and the dead be given back
to their friends, — Are these events that should
give offence ? Alas I at what antipodes man's
anger often stands to Christ's. The rulers of the
synagogue " answered with indignation " because
on the Sabbath day the Lord had healed a suffer-
ering woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen
years. Once we hear of the mighty indignation
of Christ. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus was " in-
dignant in spirit," for so they tell us the words
mean. He saw the masterpiece of the devil,
whose works he had come to destroy, spread out
before him — death and the tears, the anguish and
the groans that follow in death's train ; and his
soul was stirred to holy wrath within him. Do wc
well to be angry at the suggestion that even now
the Lord of life may snatch from sickness, death's
forerunner, those upon whom he has laid his hand ?
We give the following instance which we find
recorded and strongly indorsed by an eminent
Baptist minister of the last century, Rev. Morgan
Edwards, of New Jersey. We reproduce the story
of the " miracle," as he names it in his own some-

OF THE HEALED. l8l

what quaint and old-fashioned phraseology. It is

in regard to Hannah Carman, who, he says, died in

Brunswick, N. J., 1776. He says :

" Of her I received the following piece of his-
tory, so well attested that the skeptic himself can
have nothing to gainsay. I have before me three
certificates of the fact, and the testimony of Squire
N. Stout's lady, who was present at the time of the
miracle. She was remarkable for piety and good
sense from a child. About the 25 th year of her
age she got a fall from a horse, which so hurt her
back that she was bowed down and could in no
wise lift up herself. Her limbs were also so
affected that she was a perfect cripple, not able
to walk nor to help herself in the smallest matters.
One day the young woman who had the care of her
(now Squire Stout's lady), seated her in an elbow
chair, and went to the garden. She had not been
long in the garden before she heard a rumbling
noise in the house. She hastened in, thinking that
the cripple had tumbled out of her chair ; but how
was she surprised and frightened to see the cripple
in the far end of the room praising God who had
made her whole every whit. Miss Ketcham (for
that was the name of Squire N. Stout's lady, from
whom I had the narrative) sent to her neighbor
Bray (the signer of one of my certificates) who
came in haste, and was equally astonished, for the
cripple was all the while in an ecstacy, taking no
notice of the company, but running about the
house, moving chairs and tables from place to
place, going to her bedroom, taking up her bed
and walking about with it, and every now and then
falling on her knees to praise God, who had made

1 82 THE TESTIMONY

whole a daughter of Abraham, who had been
bowed down for ten or a dozen years. It has
been observed before that the cripple was alone in
the house when the miraculous event occurred.
The manner thereof must have come from herself,
and was as follows : ■ While I was musing on
these words, ./Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh the©
whole, I could not help breathing out my heart
and my soul in the following manner : O that I
had been in ./Eneas' place ! Upon that I heard an
audible voice saying, Arise, take up thy bed and
walk ! The suddenness of the voice made me
start in my chair ; but how was I astonished to
find my back strengthening and my limbs recover-
ing their former use in that start. I got up, and
to convince myself that it was a reality and not a
vision, I lifted up my chair and whatever came in
my way : went to my room and took up my bed,
and put my strength to other trials, till I was con-
vinced that the cure was real, and not a dream or
delusion.' "

Edwards adds :

" I doubt not but some witlings will find pleas-
antry in this story. Let them ; and be their pleas-
antry their reward. But whoever believes in the
power of ejaculatory prayer will be benefited by
it." *

The witlings it would seem then made sport of
this story of healing, as of the one just before re-
ferred to. But, considering the eminent character
of the man who vouches for it, and the certificates

* Material* for History of the Baptku iu New JtTMjr, 1791, p. 63.

OF THE HEALED. 1 83

to the truth of the narrative of which he speaks,
is there not a fair presumption at least in favor of
its genuineness ? We shall be regarded as very sim-
ple, no doubt, for having reproduced the tale, but
no matter ; simplicity is one of the soft and form-
ative stages of all true faith. The first announce-
ments of the resurrection were deemed as " idle
tales " by those who heard them, and had it not
been for the credulity of the simple-minded women
who first reported this miracle we might not soon
have had the faith of the strong-minded men, who
afterwards preached it. Prof. Godet, alluding to
alleged miracles among the French Protestants
which have precisely the same kind of document-
ary evidence in their favor, strongly refuses to
pronounce against them, and quotes with approval
the following weighty words : " There was a time
when men believed everything ; in our day they
believe nothing. I think we should take a middle
course ; we should not believe everything, but we
ought to believe some things. For this spirit of
incredulity and strong-mindedness answers no good
purpose, and I have not discovered its use. Is it
possible that God has so hidden himself behind the
creatures of his hand and under the veil of second-

1 84 THE TESTIMONY

ary causes that he will never lift the curtain at all ?
Let us conclude that the credulity of our ancesters
caused many fictions to be received as good his-
tory, but also that incredulity causes good history
to pass in our day for worthless stories."*

The following narrative of a well known phy-
sician, Dr. R of Philadelphia, is certainly very

striking. It is given in his own words as published
in " The Great Physician," by Dr. Boardman.
Being asked to give an account of the recovery of
his son, Dr. R said :

" I do not like to speak of it to people generally,
they are so unbelieving ; but I can tell you. The
children were jumping off from a bench, and my
little son fell and broke both bones of his arm be-
low the elbow. My brother, who is a professor of
surgery in the College at Chicago, was here on a
visit. I asked him to set and dress the arm. He
did so ; put it in splints, bandages, and in a sling.
The child was very patient, and went about with-
out a murmur all that day. The next morning he
came to me and said, ' Dear papa, please take off
these things.' ' Oh, no, my son ! you will have to
wear these things five or six weeks before it will
be well.' ' Why, papa, it is well.' ' Oh, no, my
dear child, that is impossible.' 'Why, papa, you
believe in prayer, don't you?' 'You know I do,
my son.' 'Well, last night when I went to bed it
hurt me very bad, and I asked Jesus to make it
well, and he did make it well, and it is well.'

* Defence of the Chrktian Faith, p. 88.

OF THE HEALED. 1 85

I did not like to say a word to chill his faith. A
happy thought came ; I said, * My dear child, your
uncle put the things on, and if they are taken off
he must do it.' Away he went to his uncle, who
told him he would have to go as he was six or
seven weeks, and must be very patient ; and when
the little fellow told him that Jesus had made him
well, he said, ' Pooh ! pooh ! nonsense/ and sent
him away. The next morning the poor boy came
again to me, and plead with so much sincerity
and confidence that I more than half believed that
he was really healed, and went to my brother and
said, ' Had you not better undo his arm and let
him see for himself ? then he will be satisfied. If
you do not, I fear, though he is very obedient, he
may be tempted to undo it himself, and then it
may be worse for him.' My brother yielded, took
off the bandages and splints, and exclaimed, ' It is
well, absolutely well,' and hastened to the door for
air to keep from fainting.

He had been a real, simple-hearted Christian,
but in his student days wandered away ; but this
brought him back to the Lord. Strange if it had
not. To all this I could say nothing, if I had been
ever so much disposed, in the way of accounting
for it, upon any other hypothesis than that of the
little fellow himself, that Jesus had made him
well."

A marvellous story, you will exclaim ; but is it

not especially wonderful that we find the doctors

of medicine as the witnesses to a miracle ? They

who handle human wounds with the callous fingers

of science, cry out, " Lo, God was in this place ! "

1 86 THE TESTIMONY

while we theologians are such devotees to cause
and effect that we fear we may commit sacrilege
by bringing in the Cause of causes. But it may
be that the physicians and physiologists are bolder
than we in personalizing the mysterious agency
which operates in the cure of sick. They call it
the "vis mcdicatrix" as if it were "some gentle
feminine nurse hidden from the sight, whose office
it is to expel the poisons, knit the fractures, and
heal the bodies." Would that we were quite as
bold to recognize sometimes, at least, the Holy
Spirit as our healer, and to pay that only fee which
he requires, our open acknowledgment and thanks
to him who has said, " I am the Lord that hea>
eth thee." And we must express our decided con-
viction that, on the whole, Christian physicians are
less skeptical on the question of miraculous heal-
ing than Christian ministers ; at least we know
more of them in our day who have orally or in
writing given in their adherence to this doctrine
than of preachers and theologians. In the narrative
next following we have the beautiful sight of the
beloved physician spending the night in prayer
with a few friends who have come to ask the
recovery of his long suffering patient. In Dr.

OF THE HEALED. 1 87

Boardman's book we read the tender story of
an English physician, Dr. De Gorrequer Grif-
feth, leaving a little patient for whom his skill
could avail nothing, and going down by the river
side, whither he had been wont to resort, for com-
munion with God, and there asking and receiving
the recovery of the child. The two persons who
have been most largely used in praying for the
cure of the sick in our own city are educated and
practicing physicians. We to whom are committed
the oracles of God, do well to see to it that we are
not more skeptical than they to whom are entrusted
the pharmacopoeiae of nature.

We instance another cure, the story of which
has been read by many, and heard by not a fevr
from the lips of the emancipated sufferer herself.
The remarkable history of Miss Jennie Smith o(
Philadelphia, is rehearsed in the little book " Frow
Baca to Beulah."*

Her disease, so mysterious and agonizing anc
long continued that her pastor pronounced it " a
narrative of suffering rarely if ever equaled," cannol
be described at length here. Suffice it to say thai
she was a helpless cripple for about sixteen years.
suffering much of the time the extremest agony,

* Garriguos Bros. Philadelphia : 1880.

1 88 THE TESTIMONY

One limb was subject to such violent and uncon-
trollable spasms that it had to be confined in a
strong box, and often held down by heavy weights.
During her extraordinary sufferings her faith and
consecration seem to have been brought into very
lively exercise, so that making her couch a pulpit,
she was greatly used for quickening the spiritual
life of such as came within her reach. Meantime
she began to lay hold of the promise of God for
bodily healing, and getting tokens of his power in
several partial reliefs, she was led on to ask and ob-
tain entire recovery. The story of this we give in
her own words. After a day of unusual suffering
a few Christian friends had gathered about her in
the evening as she lay in her extension chair. She
says:

"The evening was devoted to prayer, led by
pastor Everett. After the first hour or more, some
were obliged to leave. One brother, whom I had
not met before, as he shook hands on leaving, said,
* My sister, you are asking too much ; you are too
anxious to get well. The Lord can make better
use of you upon your cot than upon your feet.' I
was thankful for the brother's words. I then
looked searchingly into my heart. The blessed Lord
knows I honestly answered, ' No, I am not anx-
ious to get well ; I have gained the victory over
that. If the heat of the furnace was increased a
thousand fold I could say, Thy will be done, and

OF THE HEALED. 1 89

to feel pain would be sweet if fully shown to me that
it is the Father's will that I should suffer. And
I believe the time has come for me to know that
will.'

Up to this point of the meeting there was not
that oneness of mind that I felt there must be. I
said to those who remained, ' can you tarry with
me till the morning if need be ? I feel that it
must be by waiting that our Father will give us
the blessing. A re we of one accord in this matter ? '
My physician, Dr. Morgan, was the first to say, ' I
will stay, and I fully agree with you.'

They all gathered about my chair. Never can
that little group forget that season. It was now
after nine o'clock. We continued waiting before
the Lord. Occasionally one or another would
quote, with comment, an appropriate text of scrip-
ture, or engage in a brief prayer. For myself, I
lay in quiet expectancy, still suffering, but with a
remarkable sense of the divine presence. Much
of the time I was almost oblivious to my surround-
ings, so engaged was I in communion with my
heavenly Father. About 1 1 o'clock I was led to
vocally offer myself to God in fresh consecration,
saying :

* I give this body anew — these eyes to see, these
lips to talk, these ears to hear, and, if it be thy will,
these feet to walk — for Jesus. All that is of me —
all, all is thine, dear Father. Only let thy precious
will be done. '

Up to this time there was no cessation from suf-
fering or increase of strength. As before said, I
was weaker than usual. After a brief silence
there suddenly flashed upon me a most vivid view
of the healing of the withered arm. It seemed to

190 THE TESJtatOlrY

me I could see it being thrust out whole. At the
same instant the Holy Spirit bestowed on my soul
a faith to claim a similar blessing. It seemed as
if heaven were at that moment opened, and I was
conscious of a baptism of strength, as sensibly and
as positively as if an electric shock had passed
through my system. I felt definitely the strength
come into my back, and into my helpless limbs.
Laying my hand on the chair-arms, I raised myself
to a sitting posture. The Garrigue9 brothers, be-
ing seated on either side of the chair, naturally
sprang forward and laid hold to assist me. This,
however, was not necessary. Dr. Morgan, who
was sitting near, stepped forward and let down the
foot-board, and, while the hands of my friends were
yet on my shoulders, I arose and stood upon my
feet

Sister Fannie could not remember ever having
seen me standing up. She was so startled she
threw up both hands and screamed, ' Oh, Jennie,
Jennie 1 ' No words can express my feelings. My
very being yet thrills with praise as I speak of that
hour. As I stood Brother W. H. G. placed his hand
upon my head, saying, ' Praise God, from whom all
blessings flow.'

My first thought was ' Can I kneel ? ' I asked
to do so, and knelt as naturally as if I had been
accustomed to it. There was so much of the
divine presence that not a word was spoken. We
poured forth our souls in silent thanksgiving and
praise. I then arose and walked across the room
with entire ease and naturalness ; there were no
prickling or otherwise unpleasant sensations. Sat
down in a rocking-chair for some minutes. It
seemed so wonderful that I did not have to learn

OF THE HEALED 191

to walk. My limbs and body seemed as if made

A case so widely known as this has been could
not fail to elicit considerable comment. How was
such a rapid and complete recovery effected ? Some
said that it was doubtless owing to a sudden and
powerful reassertion of the will ; that as in many
such obscure diseases the ill was probably nervous
and largely imaginary, and their prayers and faith
simply brought courage and reassurance. Indeed ; —
and is it not a great thing even to find a physician
who can discover that nothing ails us when all the
doctors have pronounced it a desperate case ? If
this were all, which we do not for a moment admit,
it would certainly be a vast triumph of faith-healing
over medication. For it is not alone that our poor
diseased humanity needs a physician with divine
skill to remove our deep-seated sicknesses, but
especially one with divine insight to fathom and
uncover them. The doctor's eyes are often more
at fault than his hand. He cannot cure because
he cannot comprehend the secret of our plague.
How wonderful is the insight of the Great Phy-
sician. His penetrating glance goes to the root
of disease when ours can only see the symptoms.

Never was there healer with such vision as his.

192 THE TESTIMONY

"He took our suffering human race,
He read each wound and weakness clear,

He struck his finger on the place,
And said, thou ailest here and here?

Blessed is the patient who has found a doctor
whose healing touch is guided ever by that clear
and unerring sight which knows what is in man,
and needeth not that any should testify of him.

Of this instance we have the doctor's written
statement, confirming in every particular the tes-
timony of his patient, both as to the fearful charac-
ter of her sickness and her sudden and complete
recovery in answer to prayer. We might bring
forward many more witnesses did space permit.
The instances of drunkards, cured at once of long
enthralling appetite ; of the victims of opium
saved from their degrading bondage, and all traces
of the habit taken away, are especially interesting
as evidences of God's immediate action in taking
away the consequences of sin, as well as forgiving
the sin itself.

If one's eye is open, and his mind unprejudiced,
how many of such traces of God's finger will he
see in the world, events clear and unmistakable
enough for him who is willing to believe, but ques-
tionable and uncertain enough for him who is
determined to deny.

X.

THE VERDICT OF CANDOR.

In summing up what has been brought forward
in the preceeding chapters, we wish to review
briefly the theory, the testimony and the practice,
which our discussion has involved.

As to the theory : — Is it right for us to pray to
God to perform a miracle of healing in our behalf ?
"The truth is," answers an eminent writer, "that
to ask God to act at all, and to ask him to perform
a miracle are one and the same thing." * That is
to say, a miracle is the immediate action of God>
as distinguished from his mediate action through
natural laws. We see no reason, therefore, why
we should hesitate to pray for the healing of our
bodies any more than for the renewal of our souls.
Both are miracles ; but both are covered and pro-
vided for by the same clear word of promise.

Our hesitancy to ask for physical healing we
believe to rest largely on a false and wide-spread
error in regard to the relation of the human

* Jellett : Efficacy of Prayer, p. 41.

194 THE VERDICT

body to the redemption of Christ. It is taken for
granted by many that this house of clay was never
intended either to be repaired or beautified by the
renewing Spirit The caged-eagle theory of man's
existence is widely prevalent — the notion that the
soul is imprisoned in flesh, and is beating its bars
in eager longing to fly away and be at rest — all of
which may be very good poetry, but is very bad
theology. The scripture teaches indeed that "we that
are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened ; "
but it does not therefore thrust death's writ of
ejection into our hands as our great consolation,
and tell us that our highest felicity consists in
moving out of this house as quickly as possible.
" Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed
upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life, " is the inspired testimony concerning our
highest hope of existence. The redemption of the
body, not its dissolution, resurrection not death is
set before us in the gospel as the true goal of vic-
tory. But because that great promise of the
gospel, "Who shall fashion anew the body of our
humiliation that it may be conformed to the body
of his ^lory," nas been so largely supplanted by
the notion of a spiritual elimination taking place at

OF CANDOR. I95

death, in which a purified soul is forever freed
from a cumbering body, all this has been changed
in the creed of many. The heresy of death-wor-
ship has supplanted the doctrine of resurrection,
with a multitude of Christians, because they have
allowed the partial felicity, the departing to be with
Christ, to take the place of the final victory, the
coming of Christ, to quicken our mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in us.

It is easy to see now that when death gets es-
tablished in the high esteem of Christians, sick-
ness, his prime minister, should come to be held,
in great regard also. And so it is, that while very
few enjoy being sick, very many are afraid seri-
ously to claim healing, lest it should seem like
rebellion against a sacred ordinance, or a revolt
from a hallowed medicine which God is mercifully
putting to their lips for their spiritual recovery.
Those who have such a feeling should search the
scriptures to learn how constantly sickness is re-
ferred to as the work of the devil. From the day
when " Satan went forth from the presence of the
Lord and smote Job with sore boils," to the hour
when the Deliverer came and loosed " a daughter
of Abraham, whom Satan had bound lo these

I96 THE VERDICT

eighteen years," — he that "hath the power of
death, that is the devil," has been compelling our
wretched race to reap the first fruits of mortality,
disease and pain and bodily decay. Alas, if the
Lord's people shall be so deceived by him that
they shall willingly accept sickness, the first fruits
of death, as their portion, instead of seeking for
health, the first fruits of redemption ! If any shall
insist indeed, that God often allows his servants
to be sick for their good ; or that he sometimes per-
mits them to fall into sin for their chastening, on
that account we shall not admit that sickness is
God's agent any more than that sin is. An old
divine probably spoke as truly as he did quaintly
when he said that "the Lord sometimes allows
his saints to be sharpened on the devil's grind-
stone," but we believe that in the compre-
hensive petition, " Deliver us from the evil one"
is contained without question a prayer for rescue
from all the ways and works of Satan — from sick-
ness as well as from sin ; from pain, the penalty of
transgression, as well as from transgression itself.
But, it is asked, if the privilege and promise in
this matter are so clear, how is it that the cases of
recovery through the prayer of faith are so rare ?

OF CANDOR. W

Probably because the prayer of faith itself is so
rare, and especially because when found it receives
almost no support in the church as a whole.
Prayer for such matters should be the outcome of
the faith and intercession of the whole body of
believers. So it was in the beginning. When
Peter was delivered from prison it was because
" prayer was made without ceasing of the Church
unto God for him." And when Paul knelt alone
in the chamber of Publius to intercede for his
father's recovery, it was equally true that his peti-
tion was an expression of what was the unanimous
and concurring faith of the whole Church. But it
is not easy for an individual prayer to make head-
way against the adverse sentiment of the great body
of Christians. For example let an earnest soul
pray for a revival in a church where the prevail-
ing view is that of indifferent unbelief, or positive
disbelief in revivals, and would he be likely to ob-
tain the coveted blessing? The promise stands fast,
indeed, " How much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask
him ;" but the condition, "They were all with one
accord in one place," is wanting. How shall one
man move the great ship before the wind by hold-

I98 THE VERDICT

ing up his pocket handkerchief to the breeze,
when all the mariners refuse to spread the sails ?
And how shall one Christian's faith prevail against
the non-consent of the whole Church ? There may
be scattered instances of blessing in such circum-
stances, but there can be no wide-spread exhibitons
of divine power. They tell us that all the heat
communicated to a cake of ice short of that which
would bring it to the melting point becomes latent
and disappears. Faith, likewise, may become in-
operative and fruitless in the Church when mul-
tiplied a hundred fold by unbelief.

But there is another answer also to the question.
It is as true here as in any other field that God
acts sovereignly and according to his own deter
minate counsel. He sees it best to recover one
person at the instance of his people's prayers, and
he may see it best to withold such recovery for the
time from another.* And we would most strongly
emphasize the importance of offering our supplica-
tions for this as for all mercies in the most loyal
and hearty and unreserved submission to the will of
our Father. He has told us that " all things work

* " Nor are tifnt wrought continually, but as often as it shall have plaaaed God
and seems necessary ; whence it is evident that to work signs depend* not on the
•ption of man, but on tha will of God." BuBiager.

OF CANDOR. 199

together for good to them that love God," but we

are not to conclude that they all work in one direc-
tion. There are blessings and trials, joys and
sorrows, pains and pleasures, sickness and health,
falls and recoveries, advances and retrogressions,
but the final issue and resultant of all these ex-
periences is our highest good. This we conceive
to be the meaning of the promise. And when we
remember that God superintends all this complex
system of providences, and foresees the final effect
of each seperate element in it, we see how becom-
ing it is that we should bring every petition into
subjection to the will of the Lord. When Agus-
tine was contemplating leaving Africa and going
into Italy, his pious mother, fearing the effect
which the seductions of Rome might have upon
his ardent nature, besought the Lord with many
tears and cries that he might not be permitted to
go. He was suffered to go, however, and in Milan
he found his soul's salvation. " Thou didst deny
her," says Augustine in his confessions, " thou
didst deny her what she prayed for at that time
that thou mightest grant her what she prayed for
always." This is a perfect illustration of the point
which we are emphasizing. God may withhold

THE VERDICT

the recovery which we ask to-day because he will
give to us that " saving health " which we ask
always. He may permit temporal death to come,
in order that he may preserve his child unto life
eternal. How little we can know what is best for
us and what shall work our highest good ! Isaac
Barrow, the eminent and devout theologian was so
wayward and wicked while a lad that his Christian
father confessed that he had prayed "that if it
pleased God to take away any of his children it
might be his son Isaac." What would the Church
have lost had this prayer been granted ? On the
other hand, the mother of Charles I., it is said,
bent above the cradle of her infant boy when he
had been given up to die, and refused to be com-
forted unless God would spare his life. His life
was spared ; but how gladly would that mother
have had it otherwise could she have looked for-
ward to the day when his head fell bleeding and
ghastly beneath the stroke of the executioner's
axe ? Such illustrations open a broad field for
reflection, and suggest the real limitation of the
prayer of faith as related to healing, viz., the gra-
cious and all wise will of God.
And this is the same limitation which belongs

OF CANDOR. 20I

to the entire realm of intercessory prayer. " Hold-
ing such views in regard to the efficacy of prayer
for recovery from disease, why should you have
any sick persons in your flock ? " is the question
which a clerical critic propounds. We shall
answer by propounding a much harder one. Hold-
ing such views in regard to the efficacy of prayer
for the conversion of souls, and resting on the
plain declaration of scripture concerning God our
Saviour that he " will have all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth," why
should our questioner allow any sinner to remain
unconverted under his ministry ? And yet is it
not his sorrowful experience that of all that come
under his word and prayers, only a few compara-
tively give evidence of being regenerated ? Alas !
that we must all concede that this is our observa-
tion. But because I have to admit that all will
not hear, and all will not repent and be converted,
shall I therefore refuse to persist in preaching and
warning and rebuke and intercession, "that I
might by all means save some ? " Indeed not !
And since the sure word of promise is given to us
on this matter also, let us hold fast our confidence
without wavering, so that whether there be few or

THE VERDICT

many who shall be recovered we may by all means
heal some. Such we believe to be a candid ver-
dict in regard to the promise concerning prayer
for the sick.

And now what shall be said in regard to the
testimony brought forward ? It would be con-
sidered very weighty, we venture to believe, were
it adduced in support of a generally accepted
theory. When evidence and established convic-
tion are put in the same scale they tip the beam
very easily, but testimony against a heavy make-
weight of unbelief and prejudice makes slow head-
way. If the story of Augustine, or Luther, or
Livingston, or Fox, or Dorothea Trudel were
found in the gospels how we should fight for its
genuineness. " Ah, yes," you say, " because the
gospels are inspired, and we should not dare to
question any statement recorded on their pages."
But miracles were given to accredit inspiration,
and not inspiration to accredit miracles. The first
miracles got themselves credited simply on human
testimony, on the evidence of men and women
like ourselves, who saw, and believed and reported.
And when they had become established as facts,
then their weight went to prove the divine origin

OF CANDOR. 203

of Christianity. It is easy for us to say that the
works recorded in the gospels are supernatural,
because the system to which they belong is super-
natural. That is true ; but it is reading backward.
The first Christians could not reason in that way,
because the premise from which we argue was not
established in their day. No I The miracles of
the New Testament became established in pre-
cisely the same manner as any alleged fact is
proved to-day, by the evidence of honest, candid
and truthful witnesses, who saw and bare record.
If, therefore, our theologians choose to treat the
narratives of such godly and truthful men as
Augustine, and Luther, and Baxter as "silly tales"
they must be careful that they do not build a
portico to " the school of Hume," from which their
pupils will easily and logically graduate from the
denial of modern miracles to the denial of all
miracles.

Nor does age have anything to do with deter-
mining the value of signs and wonders. A young
miracle is entitled to the same respect as an old
one, provided it bears the same credentials. And
if we give way to the subtle illusion that the mar-
vellous is to be credited just in proportion to its

304 THE VERDICT

distance from us ; if we show ourselves forward to
admit that the Lord wrought great and mighty
signs eighteen hundred years ago, and utterly
averse to conceding that the same Lord does
anything of the kind to-day, then we must be very
careful again that we do not give countenance to
the mythical theory of miracles, which has been
so strongly pushed in this generation. Do we be-
lieve that the credibility of miracles depends on
the magnifying power of distance ; that antiquity
must stand behind them as a kind of convex mir
ror to render them sufficiently large to be distinctly
seen ? How we revolt from such an imputation !
Yet let us be cautious that we do not give occasion
for it, by emphasizing, as we cannot too strongly,
the great things that the Lord did by our fathers,
while we utterly refuse to believe that he does any
such things by their sons. Let us not forget that
the Jews in Christ's day were condemned for deny-
ing the wonderful works wrought in their own
generation, and not for disbelieving those done by
Elijah and Elisha nine hundred years before. The
defenders of New Testament miracles are num-
bered by hundreds, and there is no special danger
of a breach in the ramparts of Christianity at that

OF CANDOR. 20$

point The question of God's supernatural work-
ing to-day and to-morrow is the one where havoc
is being wrought. Unbelief shading off from
rationalism to liberal evangelicism is doing its
utmost to give away our most precious heritage.
With how many is regeneration merely a repairing
of the old nature by culture, instead of a miracu-
lous communication of the divine life ! How
many regard the promised coming of Christ in
glory as simply a new phase of providence effected
by the turning of the kaleidoscope of history ! To
how many is Satan only a concrete symbol of evil,
so that their denial of the reality of the infernal
has issued in a disbelief in the Supernal ! To how
many is inspiration only a higher state of intellect-
ual exaltation ; and resurrection an elimination or
spiritual release, effected by the dissolving chemis-
try of death ! To read the utterances put forth
by Christian teachers in these directions within
the last few years is enough to startle one and
make him cry out in the strong words of Edward
Irving : " Oh the serpent cunning of this liberal
spirit, it is killing our children ; it has already
slain its tens and thousands ; this city is sick unto
death, and dying of the mortal wounds which she

206 THE VERDICT

hath received from it." Therefore, let us be
cautious that by taking up the current sneer about
prodigies and wonders we do not get our eyes
blinded and our ears dull of hearing so as to be
utterly unable to discern any divine manifestations
in case they should be made.

As to the practice involved in this discussion :
Can it be of any service for authenticating the
truth of Christianity to-day to show examples
of men and women healed of sickness through
<aith in the Great Physician ? So far as our ob-
servation goes, the most powerful effect of such
experiences is upon the subjects themselves, in the
marked consecration and extraordinary spiritual
anointing which almost invariably attend them.
We can bear unqualified testimony on this point.
Of a large number within the circle of our ac-
quaintance, who have been healed, or who have
imagined themselves healed, we have never seen
one who did not give evidence of having received
an unusual enduement of spiritual power. It has
seemed as though the double blessing of forgive-
ness and health had been followed by the bestow-
ment of a double portion of the Spirit. If we
could let the objectors to our doctrine witness

OF CANDOR. 207

some of the examples of alleged healing which
have been under our eyes for several years —
inebriates who, after half a lifetime wasted in
desperate struggles for reform, declare that their
appetite was instantly eradicated in answer to in-
tercessory prayer ; invalids lifted in an hour from
couches where they had lain for years ; and now
their adoring gratitude, their joyful self-surrender,
their burning zeal in the service of the Lord — if
we could let our critics witness these things we
believe that the most stubborn among them would
at least be willing that these happy subjects of — •
something should remain under the illusion that
they have had the Saviour's healing touch laid
upon them.

Such we believe to be the verdict of candor
upon this whole question. We do not ask that
the highest place in Christian doctrine be given to
faith in supernatural healing. We readily admit
that grace is vastly more important than miracles ;
but miracles have their place as shadows of greater
things. We urge that they may hold this place,
that we may be helped thereby the better to ap-
prehend the substance.

When the Emperor Theodosius had on a great

J08 THE VERDICT OF CANDOR.

occasion given release to all the prisoners confined
within his realm he exclaimed : " And now would
to God I could open all the tombs and give life to
the dead ! " If we could sometimes see the Lord
unlocking the prison-house of sickness and giving
reprieve from the impending penalty of death to
those long in bondage it might be a salutary pledge
and reminder of our Redeemer's purpose to bring
forth the prisoners from the tomb in that day when
he shall quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit
that dwelleth in us ; it might sound in our ears
with repeated emphasis the Lord's word, " turn ye
to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope ; even to-
day do I declare that I will render double unto
thee"

XL

THE VERDICT OF CAUTION.

"The Church can no longer say, silver and gold
have I none," said Pope Gregory to Thomas
Aquinas. " No, nor can she say any longer, * In
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and
walk,' " answered Thomas. A very deep wisdom,
and a very fruitful suggestion are contained in this
answer of the theologian. As riches increase, that
close dependence on God which is the fertile soil
of faith and trust, decreases. It is when we are
most straightened in ourselves that the bounty of
God is most widely open to us ; it is when we have
nothing that we find the key with which to enter
in and possess all things which are ours in Christ.

We are living in an age in which the Church
enjoys very large prosperity in an earthly direction ;
when she is " rich and increased in goods," and,
therefore, in constant peril of saying " I have
need of nothing." It is not an era, therefore,
in which the greatest triumphs of faith and
intercession may be reasonably looked for. Every

2IO TUB VERDICT

Christian knows in his own experience the differ-
ence between saying his prayers and supplicating
God for help under the stress of overwhelming
need ; and in the Church we may well open our
eyes to the fact that our prosperity, and our rest
from persecution and trial are sources of weakness
and enervation. We do not pray as apostles, and
martyrs, and confessors, and reformers prayed, be-
cause not pressed upon by enemies, and thereby
shut up to God as they were ; and so we do not
get such answers as they received.

Our first caution therefore concerning this sub-
ject is that we do not demand too much of the
Christian Church of to-day. We should ask great
things and expect great things of God ; but of
men, weak and back-slidden in heart, we ought not
to be too exacting. Faith for healing cannot rise
above the general level of the Church's faith.
There are multitudes of prayers in these days,
written prayers and extemporaneous prayers, pray-
ers in the Church, and prayers in the family ; but
how many Christians out of the great mass have
any very extensive record of direct, definite and
unmistakable answers to their petitions ? Of all
who knock at the gates of heaven each day, how

OF CAUTION. 211

many wait and watch till the door is opened and
their portion is brought to them ? But it is not rea-
sonable to expect that such as have no experience
in prevailing prayers for other things should be
able to wield at once the prayer of faith which
saves the sick. In God's school it is no more true
than in man's, that pupils can step immediately
into the highest attainments with no previous
study, or diligent mastery of the first principles
pf faith. If the conviction and assurance of the
Church as a whole should rise to the height of this
great argument, we might witness wonderful
things ; but, so long as it does not, we should not
be made to doubt because of the meagre conquests
which we witness. It is for us to pray always
and earnestly that the Lord would be pleased to
restore to his Church her primitive gifts, by re-
storing her primitive endowments of unworldliness
and poverty of spirit and separation unto God. If
any organ of the body be weak and sickly, the
only sure method of restoring it is to tone up the
whole system, and bring it to the normal standard
of health ; so if the entire body of Christ were
revived and reinvested with her first spiritual
powers, these special gifts and functions of which

212 THE VERDICT

we are writing would not fail to be in extensive
exercise.

Then again we need to be very careful that we
do not fall into heresy on this question. Heresy,
as a thoughtful Christian writer has pointed out,
means a dividing or a choosing ; it is the accept-
ance and advocacy of one hemisphere of truth to
the rejection of the other. Every doctrine is two
sided ; so that whichever phase commends itself to
us we must remember its counterpart, and aim to
preserve the balance of truth by holding fast to
this also. In the matter before us, as in the
whole doctrine of prayer, human freedom and the
divine sovereignty are inseparably joined. Here
are the two sides :

" Ask wltat ye will and it shall be done unto
you."— John xv. 7.

"If ye ask anything according to his will he
heareth us." — 1 John v. 14.

In our assent to the doctrine of the divine
sovereignty we must never forget the gracious
privilege which is accorded to us of freely making
known our requests to God, with the fullest assur-
ance that he will hear and grant them. "Whatso-
ever ye shall ask in my name that will I do ; " — we

OF CAUTION. 213

cannot lean too hard upon this promise or plead it
too confidently. But at the same time we must be
sure that beneath every prayer the strong, clear
undertone of "thy will be done" is distinctly
heard. Of course in saying this we open a mys-
tery, and suggest a seeming contradiction which
the wisdom of the ages has been unable to solve.
But because we find both sides of this truth dis-
tinctly expressed in scripture, we must be sure to
emphasize both.* Let us be very careful there-
fore that we do not proclaim the doctrine of divine
healing in an unbalanced and reckless manner. If
we are told that a brother in the Church is sick
let us not make undue haste to declare that he will
certainly be restored if we carry his case to God.
We must keep distinctly in mind both Melita and
Miletum : remembering that at one place Paul
healed the father of Publius by his prayers, and
that at the other place he left Trophimus sick.

"*The only way for a believer, if he wants to go rightly, is to remember that
truth is always two-sided. If there is any truth that the Holy Ghost has specially
pressed upon your heart, if you do not want to push it to the extreme, ask what is
the counter- truth, and lean a little of your weight upon that ; otherwise, if you
bear so very much on one side of the truth, there is a danger of pushing it into a
heresy. Heresy means selected truth ; it does not mean error : heresy and error
are very different things. Heresy is truth ; but truth pushed into undue impoR
Udgc to the disparagement of the truth on the other side." — William Lincolu.

214 THE VERDICT

Some commentators have conjectured the reason
why the latter was not at that time recovered, viz.,
that he was to be thereby kept back from martyr-
dom which he would probably have met had he
gone with Paul, and for which his time had not
come in the purpose of God. Whether there is
any truth or not in this conjecture, there was
doubtless some good reason why this companion of
the apostle should have been detained for the
while under infirmity. The all wise and gracious
Lord, who is shaping our lives, must be allowed to
choose such detentions for us, if he sees that he
can thereby best forward our usefulness and ad-
vance his own glory. We should be cautious
therefore that in this matter we do not push the
element of human choice too strongly and rashly,
to the ignoring of the divine, and so bring in the
heresy of free-will.

Let us take warning from those misguided
teachers who are going to the other extreme, and
bearing so hard upon the divine sovereignty as
practically to deny man's freedom, to ask or expect
miraculous healing. More than this, indeed, they
seem to have pushed the sovereignty of God almost
into an iron fixedness, where even the Almighty is

OF CAUTION. 215

not at liberty to work miracles any longer, as
though under bonds to restrain this office of his
Omnipotence since the apostolic age. This we
hold to be a far more serious error than the other,
since it appears not only to shut up man's freedom
of asking, but to limit God's freedom of giving.
There have appeared in our religious newspapers,
of late, extended deliverances, in which the pos-
sibility of any miraculous interventions in this age
is most emphatically denied, and the attempt to
apply the plain promise in James to present times
and circumstances characterized as gross super-
stition. A rash responsibility for evangelical
teachers to take in speaking thus, we should say.
\t is opening channels of denial respecting the
lupernatural, into which the swelling unbelief of
toir age will not be slow to pour, inevitably deep-
ening those channels into great gulfs of skepticism.
" Ah, but it is you who are ministering to un-
belief," it is replied, " by holding out promises in
the fulfilment of which men will be disappointed,
and thereby be led to doubt the word of the
Lord." That is an objection that can be urged
equally against the whole doctrine of prayer, and
it is one concerning which we can take no blame.

2l6 THB VERDICT

It is for us simply to emphasize every promise
which God has given, and to refrain from cumber-
ing it with any conditions of ours. If such assent
should promote unbelief in any, that is the Lord's
responsibility who gave the promise. If instead
of assent we give denial, that is our responsibility,
and the consequences must lie at our door.

Let us on our part, therefore, avoid heresy by
keeping these two great elements of prayer in
equilibrium, believing strongly but asking submis-
sively, holding up in one hand of our supplication
a "Thus saith the Lord," and in the other a "The
will of the Lord be done."

It requires great caution also in this subject
that we do not fall into fanaticism. As we have
already indicated, fanaticism is not necessarily a
sign of error. It is more likely to be a healthful
than a fatal symptom. It is often the proud flesh
and fever heat which indicate that healing is going
on in some fractured bone or ligament of the sys-
tem of doctrine. Nevertheless, it must be subdued
and kept down lest the truth may suffer reproach.
And in this field especially do we need to guard
against it.

Nowhere does real require to be so carefully

OF CAUTIOM 217

tempered by knowledge as here. Novices, lifted
up with pride, will lay hold of this doctrine, and
with the enthusiasm which the discovery of some
long neglected truth is apt to engender they will
parade their faith, and make extravagant claims
concerning it. Nothing needs to be held with such
quietness and reserve as this truth. To press
it upon the undevout and uninstructed is only to
bring it into contempt. Those who have the most
wisdom in such matters will-be found speaking in
very hushed tones, and without assumption or
ostentation. One who has the habit of parad*
ing this theme on all occasions, and haranguing it
at every street corner, gives clear evidence of his
unfitness to handle it. Here is a serious peril, as
we distinctly forsee ; but the best truth has always
had to run such risks. Dry and lifeless tradition
is the only thing which has invariably been exempt
from them.

The more careful, therefore, should all be, who
desire to see God's word prevail, to pray much and
argue little, that the Spirit who can alone dis-
cover the deep things of God may reveal his true
will to the Church concerning this important ques-
tion. And most especially is all undue forward-

2l8 THE VERDICT

ness in attempting to exercise this ministry to be
avoided. We are persuaded that there is no
deeper or more difficult question which can come
within our reach. If any one is sincerely desirous
of being used of the Lord in this direction let him
give diligent heed to be taught of God concerning,
it. We are persuaded that there is no school on
earth which is competent to graduate one in this
divine science. Therefore we would commend our
readers neither to books nor to theologians, but to
the personal instructions of the Spirit of God. We
admire the candor with which one eminent doctor of
theology, Prof. Godet, has confessed the true secret
of knowledge in this field. He says : " A single
prayer answered, a single case of living contact
with the power of the Father, a single exertion ol
the strength of Christ over the weakness that is in
us will teach us more on the subject of miracles
than all that I have been able in this lecture to say
to you upon this great subject."

Let it be distinctly borne in mind that this is no
easy art, no surface-truth to be picked up by any
religious adventurer who may desire to exhibit
some novel accomplishment Unless one is ready
for the most absolute self-surrender and the most

OF CAV770J9. 219

implicit obedience let him not even enter this
school of inquiry with any hope of learning its
secrets. It is told of Pastor Blumhardt, who knew
as much of this subject, we believe, as any man in
recent times, that after the promise for healing
was first brought powerfully to his mind he passed
two years in repeated prayers and fastings and
searchings for the mind of the Spirit before he
had the assurance that he should lay hands on the
sick for their recovery. We know that others who
have been greatly owned of God in this direction
have had a similar experience. Therefore we would
interpose a strong caution against rashness or for-
wardness in this matter. We need less praying
for the sick rather than more ; only that the less
shall be real, and deep, and intelligent, and believ-
ing. What a revelation is contained in the fact
that some of the disputants in this controversy,
after boldly denying that miraculous healing is
possible in this age of the world, have then added
" of course we ought to pray for the sick." That
is, being fairly interpreted, after becoming
thoroughly convinced that God will not inter-
pose supernaturally for their restoration then we
should offer our supplication for their healing. It

220 THE VERDICT

seems to us, on the contrary, that such a convic
tion furnishes a good reason why we should refrain
from praying till we have acknowledged our un-
belief and forsaken it

The strongest and most enlightened faith, one-
ness of heart in all uniting to pray, minute and
obedient submission to every condition named in
scripture are what are absolutely essential in this
field. With the utmost tenderness and deference
we would allude to a memorable instance of pray-
ing for the sick, which is fresh in mind. A call
issued by the secular authorities ; a day of prayer
in which believers and formalists alike unite ; the
incense of the Romish mass ascending with the
intercessions of the Protestant prayer meeting ; the
Jew and the Christian offering up, each according
to his kind ; the helpless and imprisoned patient
meantime shut out from the ministry of grace and
shut in to the ministry of drugs aud stimulants
so that any lucid exercise of faith or of prayer
in the Holy Spirit would seem to be well-nigh
impossible, — What shall we say of this ? God
forbid that we should by the slightest criticism
seem to mock the grief of a suffering nation,
or to disparage a call to prayer from the rulers

of cactt/om 221

who did the best they knew in a great crisis, and
we have no light as to how the Lord may have
regarded such an offering. But in simple candor
and loyalty to the word of God we must decline to
have this event established as a prayer guage, as
many are insisting on making it. It was simply a
national fast day, concerning which we proffer no
remark. But the prayer of faith, by the elders
of the Church, offered at the special request of the
sick person, made in the name of Jesus, the one
mediator between God and man, and in the
Holy Ghost the Comforter, and all rendered up in
obedience to every known condition of faith and
oneness of mind enjoined in scripture — this is
the kind of prayer for the sick which we are dis-
cussing in this volume, and no other. Here is a
service which belongs to the Holy of holies of the
Christian Church, and which cannot be brought
out into the court of the Gentiles.

A caution against dogmatism and pride of opin-
ion in a field where we know only in part, may
well close what we have to say. Alas ! how little
we truly understand of this whole matter. We
believe strongly because we have promises that
are " yea, and in him, amen unto the glory of God

222 THE VERDICT

by us." And so we have presented as best we
could the doctrine, the history and the experience
of the Church upon this great question. How
little we can speak of actual use of these gifts.
But in the oft quoted words of a good man, we are
" very confident that the Lord has more truth yet
to break forth out of his holy word ; " on this sub-
ject especially, because so many of God's people
are " searching diligently what or what manner of
time the Spirit of Christ did dignify " when he
penned these great promises. If God has any-
thing to reveal by any instrument whatever, let us
be open to receive it. If such instruments shall
prove to be, as we quite believe, the " poor of this
world rich in faith ; " the servants of Christ, who
after long endurance of the bondage of pain have
traced the promises of healing line by line in their
own experience; and the obedient children, who have
faced the world's doubt and scornful denial for the
joy of answering God's challenge, " Prove me now
herewith," let us take heed that we do not despise
even such teachers and light bearers. And in all
our urgency for the truth of God in this matter,
let us not forget that miracles are but signs, not
the substance. In prayer, in preaching, in tears

OF CAUTION. 223

and persuasions over perishing souls, in bearing
the cross and counting all things as loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the
Lord, let us for the present be diligently em-
ployed, until the day dawn and the shadows flee
away ; until the harvest be gathered and the first
fruits shall be needed no more ; until that which
is perfect shall come, and that which is in part
shall be done away.

XIL

THE CONCLUSION.

The prayer of faith, when really understood and
exercised, will be confessed to be the very highest
attainment of the Christian life. And yet it is an
attainment which comes from unlearning rather
than from learning ; from self-abnegation rather
than from self-culture ; from decrease towards
spiritual childhood rather than from increase to-
wards the stature of intellectual manhood. The
same condition holds for opening the kingdom of
heaven for others as for entering it ourselves, viz.,
that we "become as little children." To reach
down and grasp the secret of simplicity of faith
and implicitness of confidence is far more difficult
than to reach up and lay hold of the key of knowl-
edge. Hence, how significant it is that in the
Scriptures children are made the heroes of faith.
•'This is the victory that overcometh the world
even our faith." And who then are the over-
comers ? Who are they that have laid hold of the

THE CONCLUSION. 225

mighty secret of this spiritual conquest? "Ye
are of God little children, and have overcome them."
And why ? " Because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in them." Yes ; and just in pro-
portion as we are emptied of self, and schooled
back into that second childhood which should
follow the second birth, will God be in us most
fully and act through us most powerfully.

There is a passage in the life of an eminent
Christian philosopher which is well worth ponder-
ing deeply and seriously in this age of superficial
praying. A friend of Coleridge says that stand-
ing by his bedside not long before his death he
was commenting on the Lord's prayer, when he
suddenly broke out : " Oh my dear friend, to pray,
to pray as God would have us ; to pray with all the
heart and strength ; with the reason and the will,
to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice
through Christ and verily do the thing he pleaseth
thereupon — this is the last, the greatest achieve-
ment of the Christian's warfare on earth. Teach
us to pray, O Lord!" "And then," says the
narrator, "he burst into a flood of tears, and
begged me to pray for him." The greatest
achievement indeed ! And yet it is not by might

226 THE CONCLUSION.

nor by power. Wisdom cannot compass it ; learn
ing cannot master it. " To pray with all the heart
and strength ; " which should mean with the heart
submerged in the heart of Christ, and with the
strength transformed into " the irresistable might
of weakness, " with the reason brought into com-
plete captivity to the cross of Christ, and with the
will surrendered up to the will of God, this is
indeed the secret of power.

Let it be noted that we are speaking of one of
the highest attainments of Christianity now, and
not of its rudiments. The faith which saves us is
the simplest exercise of the heart ; the prayer of
faith which saves the sick is the most exacting.
The one is merely receptive, the other is power-
fully self-surrendering. Do you wish to be saved,
the Master will only say to you " Take the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."
Do you wish to be mightily used of the Lord in
the office of raising the sick from their beds, and
giving life to those who are dead in sin, you will
hear him asking the searching question " Can ye
drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized
with the baptism which I am baptized with ? " In
the faith by which we are converted and delivered

THE CONCLUSION. 22?

from the wrath to come we do naught but receive
Jesus Christ ; in the faith by which we are conse-
crated and made vessels " meet for the Master's
use and prepared unto every good work," we give
ourselves, soul, body and spirit to Jesus Christ.

That we may see how strenuous and searching
the requirements for prevailing prayer are, let us
note three explicit conditions laid down in Scrip-
ture, to which are attached the promise of what-
soever we ask :

"If ye abide in me and my words abide in you"
— John xv. 7.

" If we keep his commandments and do those
things that are pleasing in his sight " — 1 John
iii. 22.

" If we ask anything according to his will." —
1 John v. 14.

The first requirement, " If ye abide in me — " is
that of intimate and unbroken communion with
the Lord. Our justification depends upon our
being in Christ. Our power and fellowship de-
pend upon our abiding in Christ. And this last
implies the most constant and uninterrupted in-
timacy of the soul with the Saviour. It is the
entering into his life and having his life so enter-

228 THE CONCLUSION.

ing into us, that the confession of the Apostle
becomes realized in us — "I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me." Such abiding will stand in
exact proportion to our detachment from the world.
The " double minded man " who is trying to make
the most of both worlds, grasping for earth's riches
and pleasures and yet wishing to secure the high-
est prizes of the kingdom of heaven, will inevitably
waver ; and to such a one the Scripture speaks ex-
pressly, " Let not that man think that he shall
receive anything of the Lord." It is a hard say-
ing, but one which in some form or other is con-
stantly repeated in the word of God. " Know ye
not that the friendship of this world is enmity to
God ? " asks the apostle James ; and the converse
is hardly less true for believers, that the
enmity of this world is friendship with God.
When, for any cause, a Christian finds his earthly
affections sundered, so that they do not draw him
down, he will at least learn how much easier it is
to set his affections on things above. Never do
we find the heart of God opening so widely to us
as when the heart of the world is closed against
us. There is a homely wisdom, therefore, in the
lines of an old poet, Henry Vaughan, when for his

THE CONCLUSION. 22p

" soul's chief health " he prays for these three
things :

" A living faith, a heart of flesh,

The world an enemie ;
The last will keepe the first two fresh,

And bring me where I'de be."

How easy it is to understand the secret of
/aul's, " / live, yet not I" after he has told us of
the double crucifixion which he has endured — "By
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the
world." Some become dead to the world through
the pain or trial or privation which cuts them off
from all communion with it, though the world is
still there ; to others the world becomes dead be-
cause of the cutting off of friends, and comforts,
and fortune, in which their world consisted. In
either case, if there be a heart which truly longs
for God, it will find a wonderful release towards
him. We are advocating no morbid asceticism,
but simply interpreting Scripture ; and we must
add, also, interpreting the secret of power in those
who have been mightily prevalent in intercession.
For in tracing the lives of those most eminently
successful in the prayer of faith, as they have
passed in review in this volume, we have found

iy> THE CONCLUSION.

that, almost without exception, they have been
those remarkably separated from the world, either
through their own voluntary consecration or through
persecutions, and trials, and sufferings endured for
Christ's sake.

The next condition which we have noted " If
we keep his commandments and do those things
which are pleasing in his sight," needs to be em-
phasized not less strongly. Implicit obedience, a
painstaking attention to the smallest and the
greatest requirements of the Lord, is what is
enjoined. Rather, we might say, a fidelity in ser-
vice which admits no distinction of small or great
when handling the commandments of the Lord.
For true obedience knows no such discriminations
as essential and non-essential in the divine re-
quirements ; it has no test fine enough for distin-
guishing things indifferent from things vital
Among the sayings of Christ, our perfect ex-
ampler in praying as in living, we find these two
professions which we do well to read together.
" / do always those things that please him**
" / know that thou kearest me always**
Here again we touch the heart of this great
secret To obey well is to pray well ; for not only

THE CONCLUSION. 2%\

does God love the willing and the obedient, but
such know his mind and understand how and what
to ask as no others can. One step in compliance
with the Father's will will carry us further in
knowledge than ten steps in mere studious search
into the mystery of his ways. Wonderfully do
the mind and purposes of God open themselves to
the obedient soul. " Who by searching can find
out God ? " But " if any man do his will he shall
know of the doctrine."

Therefore should we study to exercise the most
minute and diligent obedience to the Lord's re-
quirements. "Whatsoever hesaithuntoyou, do it."
In keeping this commandment there is great re-
ward and the surest entrance into the promise of
Christ, " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in
my name he will give it you." In all our Christian
life and practice let us beware of saying concern-
ing any command of God that it is only a form,
and therefore it does not matter. Forms are
sometimes given, no doubt, as tests of our fidelity,
as when Naaman is enjoined to wash seven times
in the Jordan for his healing, or when the elders
are commanded to anoint the sick with oil for
their recovery. Forms are nothing, to be sure ;

2& THE CONCLUSION.

but the obedience which responds to those forms
in every minute particular, for the love of Christ, is
most precious in the sight of God. Hence, sig-
nificantly, Paul thanks God concerning the Roman
Christians that they had " obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was committed to
them."

And, finally, " if we ask anything according to
his will ; " which means " that we should be of a
v.ruth purely, simply and wholly at one with the
Dne Eternal Will of God, or altogether without
will, so that the created will should flow out into
the Eternal Will, and be swallowed up and lost
therein, so that the Eternal Will alone should do
and leave undone in us."* And let us not be
alarmed at this requirement, as though it meant
pains, racks, tortures, the loss of our lives, the
death of our children, and everything else which
is dreadful to contemplate. Why is it that we
have associated such things with the prayer, " Thy
will be done ? " Let us search the Scriptures and
see what God's revealed will is. " For this is the
will of God even your sanctification" f "And this
is the will of him that sent me, that every one that

• Tbeologia Gcnnsmca, p. go

THE CONCLUSION. J33

seeth the Son and believeth on him may have ever-
lasting life." * " Who will have all men to be
saved and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth." f These and many other texts, if we had
space to quote them, point in one direction, and
indicate that the will of God is our health and not
our hurt ; our weal and not our woe ; our life and
not our death. It must be the will of God that
all that is contrary to him should be destroyed.
" Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not
planted shall be rooted up." Sin, sickness and
death are contrary to God ; they are not plants of
his planting, but tares which the enemy has sown
in his field. Therefore they are to be plucked up,
and we may be certain that we are working in the
line of his will when we are seeking to eradicate
them. What, then, if we should chiefly aim in our
ministry at the sick bed to set forth this blessed
disposition and purpose of the divine will ? What
if, instead of laying such stress on patient sub«
mission to pain and bodily disorder as things in-
evitable, we should seek to lift the sufferer up into
harmony with God, in whom there is no sickness
and no disorder ? And then when we pray " thy

* John ri 40.
♦iTim.fi. 4.

334 THE CONCLUSION.

will be done" we shall mean let sickness be de-
stroyed ; let the sufferer be delivered from the
racks and tortures of pain's inquisition; let sin
and the bitter fruit of sin in these poor tormented
bodies be plucked up together. In praying thus
we must surely be setting our faces in the right
direction. For looking upward for the key of our
petition, " Thy will be done on earth," we hear
"as it is in heaven." But in heaven there is cer-
tainly no sin, sickness or death; and so we are en-
joined to ask and strive and labor that there be none
on earth. And looking forward to the predicted
consummation of Christ's redemptive work, when
God's will shall be actually done on earth, we read
the glowing words : "And there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shad there
be any more pain." Here then is the clearly de-
fined pattern, above us, and before us; and amid
all the tangled mysteries of evil, we should set our
faces like a flint to pray it out and work it out ink
blessed fulfillment. And while we recognize the
doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty, to which we
have elsewhere referred, thir should no more pre-
vent our asking in faith for the healing of our
bodies, than the doctrine of election should prevent

THE CONCLUSION.

235

our asking with the fullest assurance for the salva-
tion of our souls. These observations in this clos-
ing chapter, let it be remembered, are especially
for such as may be called to exercise the minis-
try of healing. If there are those who desire this
office, we believe they should seek, with all their
heart the consecration, the separation from the
world and the surrender to God's will, which the
Scriptures enjoin as conditions of prevailing prayer.
To the sick, sensible of their lack of these at-
tainments, and fearing that their case cannot be
reached on that account, we would speak a differ-
ent word, even the word of the Master — "Be not
afraid, only believe. " Christ comes to the sinner,
helpless, guilty, lost, and saves him just as he finds
him. And so with the sufferer, when he lies
"stripped of his raiment, wounded and half dead."
As the good Samaritan "came where hs was and
bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine," so
Jesus will take the patient just where he is, if he
takes him at all. We have not to make ourselves
better in order to be healed, either spiritually or
physically. Therefore let the sufferer take courage
and lift up his weary head. Oh, ye unnumbered
subjects of pain and bodily torture, with hands

236 THE CONCLUSION.

and feet which you would use so diligently and
swiftly in the service of your Lord if they were
only released from the fetters which bind them!
Oh, ye countless victims of pain and disorder, who
have never consecrated either your souls or your
bodies to the service of him who made them, hear
all of you that voice of him who speaketh from
heaven, saying, " I am the Lord that healeth thee. *'
And if the promises of God and the teachings of
Scripture and the testimonies of the healed set
forth in this book might throw one ray of hope or
alleviation into your sick chambers, it would repay
amply the pains we have taken in its preparation,
and more than compensate us for any reproach
we may incur for having borne witness to a doc-
trine of which many, as yet, can hear only with
impatience and derision. And to this last word
we would join a prayer which has come down to
us from a very ancient liturgy:

"remember, o lord, those who are diseased and
sick, and those who are troubled by unclean
spirits; and do thou who art god, speedily heal
and deliver them."

APPENDIX

Note A. (P. 58.)

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS.

Those who have never had their attention called
to the statements of the Christian fathers respect-
ing the continuance of miracles in their day, will
doubtless be surprised at this conclusion of Uhl-
horn. But other eminent writers on the early
history of the church are equally emphatic. And
we are persuaded that no one who has looked care-
fully into the subject will consider it an easy task
to refute this conclusion.

The most ingenious attempt to break the force
of the patristic testimony on this subject, which
we have met, is that of Rev. Dr. Geo. W. Samson,
in an article, "Are there Miracles of Healing?" in
"The Christian at Work," June 1st, 1882. His
position is that "no evidence of the continuance
or miracles after the apostolic age is presented by
the early Christian writers. " And his theory is,
that the seeming testimonies to such continuance

238 APPENDIX.

are written in a kind of historical present tense,
the real reference being to the days of the apos-
tles, and not the times of the writers. He applies
this method somewhat plausibly to the statements
of Irenaeus, but refrains, we think very wisely,
from using it upon the other witnesses. When,
as in the testimony of Tertullian and Augustine,
for example, names and places are given, it is
clearly quite impossible to throw the allusion back
to apostolic times. We insert a few additional
testimonies from the fathers, and ask the candid
reader to see how impossible it is to make them
refer to the times of the apostles.
Tertullian says:

"Even Severns himself, the father of Antonine, was graciously
mindful of the Christians. For he sought out the Christian Pro-
culus, surnamed Torpacion, the steward of Euhodias, and in gaat-
itude for his once having cured him by anointing, he kept him in
hi;- palace till the day of his death." (Ad. Scap. 4.)

We believe no one can candidly read the para-
graph in which this sentence stands without being
persuaded that the reference is to healing by
supernatural means.

Origen, commenting on the words, "the demon-
stration of the Spirit and of power," says:

APFEMDTX.

239

•Of 'power' because of the signs and wonders which we must
believe to have been performed, both on many other grounds and
on this, that traces of them are still preserved among those who regit
late their lives by the precepts of the gospel. " (Contra Celsum, B, 1,
Chap. II.)

Again, he says:

"And there are still preservea among Christians traces of that
Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a dove. They expel
evil spirits, and perform many cures and foresee certain events
according to the will of the Logos." (Id. B. 1, xlvii.)

Once more:

"We assert that the whole habitable world contains evidence of
tke works of Jesus, in the existence of those churches of God
which have been founded through Him by those who have been
converted from the practice of innumerable sins. And the name
of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men and
expel demons, and also take away diseases." (Id. B. I, lxvii.)

Who can deny that these are plain assertions of
the continuance of miracles in the writer's day?

Chrysostom, in his Libra Contra Gentiles, com-
menting on John xiv: 12:

•He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also,
and greater works," etc., appeals to the miracles recorded in the
Acts of the Apostles in proof of the truth of this promise, and
then adds: "But if any one assert that these are mere smoke and
a fictitious wonder unworthy of credit, LET us VIEW THOSE OF THE

240 APPENDIX.

present DAY, which are calculated both to stop and to put to
shame the blaspheming mouth, and to check the unbridled tongue.
For throughout our whole habitable world, there is not a country, a
nation, or a city, where these wonders are not commonly spoken of,
which, if figments, would never have occasioned so much admira-
tion. And you yourselves, indeed, might testify for us to this.
For we shall have no occasion to receive confirmation of what we
assert from others, seeing that you yourselves, our opponents,
supply us therewith." (Logos pros Hellenas — Ed. Par, 1621,
Tom I, p. 728-732.)

We now reproduce the famous paragraph from
Irenaeus entire, that the reader may judge whether
the writer is speaking of his own or of apostolic
times:

"If, however, they maintain that the Lord, too, performed such
works simply in appearance, we shall refer them to the prophet-
ical writings, and prove from these both that all things were thus
predicted regarding Him, and did take place undoubtedly, and
that He is the only Son of God. Wherefore, also, those who are
in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name
perform (miracles), so as to promote the welfare of other men,
according to the gift which each one has received from Him. For
some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who
have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe
[in Christ] and join themselves to the church. Others have fore-
knowledge of things to come; they see visions, and utter proph-
etic expressions. Others, still, heal the sick by laying their hands
upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have
said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us

APPENDIX.

241

for many years. And what shall I more say? It is not possible
to name the number of the gifts which the church, [scattered]
throughout the whole world, has received from God, in the name
of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and which
she exerts day by day for the benefit of the Gentiles, neither prac-
tising deception upon any, nor taking any reward from them [on
account of such miraculous interpositions]. For as she has re-
ceived freely from God, freely also does she minister [to others] .

Nor does she perform anything by means of angelic invocations,
or by incantations, or by any other wicked, curious art; but direct-
ing her prayers to the Lord who made all things, in a pure, sincere
and straightforward spirit, and calling upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, she has been accustomed to work miracles for the
advantage of mankind, and not to lead them into error. If, there-
fore, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ even now confers benefits,
and cures thoroughly and effectually all who anywhere believe on
Him, but not that of Simon, or Menander, or Carpocrates, or any
other man whatever, it is manifest that when he was made man he
held fellowship with His own creation and did all things through
the power of God, according to the will of the Father of all, as
the prophets had foretold." (Adv. Haer B. I, xxxii.)

We have in this case, as in the other quotations,
used the translation of the Ante-Nicene Christian
Library, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh.

Mosheim, referring to the alleged cures and ex-
pulsion of demons in the 2d century, says:

"That those gifts of the Spirit which are commonly termed
miraculous, were liberally imparted by Heaven to numbers of the
Christians, not only in this, but likewise in the succeeding age, and

242 APPENDIX.

more especially to those who devoted themselves to the propaga-
tion of the gospel among the heathen, has, on the faith of the con-
current testimony of the ancient fathers, been hitherto universally
credited throughout the Christian world. Nor does it appear that
in our belief as to this we can with the least propriety be said to
have embraced anything contrary to sound reason. Only let it be
considered that the writers on whose testimony we rely were all
of them men of gravity and worth, who could feel no inclination
to deceive; that they were in part philosophers; that in point of
residence and country they were far separated from each other;
that their report is not grounded on mere hearsay, but upon what
they state themselves to have witnessed with their own eyes; that
they call on God in the most solemn manner to attest its truth
(vid Origen contra Celsum, L. I, p. 35), and lastly that they do not
pretend to have themselves possessed the power of working mira-
cles, but merely attribute it to others; and let me ask what reason
can there possibly be assigned that should induce us to withhold
from them our implicit confidence." (Historical Commentaries,
Century II, sect. 5, Note.)

The extended note of Mosheim from which we
make this extract is well worth the reader's exam-
ination in full. It contains the strong avowal that
the opinion above quoted of the continuance of mir-
acles is the Catholic view; and it criticises at length
the opposite theory as propounded by his contem-
porary Middleton, which he says the author was
compelled in a later work practically to retract.

APPENDIX. 243

Note B. (P. 80.)

PRACTICE OF THE EARLY BAPTISTS.

Rev. Morgan Edwards, in "Materials towards a
History of American Baptists," Vol. I, p. 23,
speaking of Rev. Owen Thomas, once pastor at
Welch Tract, Del., says:

"Mr. Thomas left behind him the following remarkable note:
'I have been called upon three times to anoint the sick with oil
for recovery. The effect was surprising in every case; but in none
more so than in that of our brother, Rynallt Howell. He was so
sore with the bruises of the waggon when he was anointed that he
could not bear to be turned in bed otherwise than with the sheet;
the next day he was so well that he went to meeting. I have often
wondered that this rite is so much neglected, as the precept is so
plain and the effects have been so salutary.' "

On page 28 of the same work Mr. Edwards
says, referring to Rev. Hugh Davis, pastor of Great
Valley church:

"Some years before his death he had a severe pain in his arm,
which gradually wasted the limb and made life a burden. After
trying many remedies he sent for the elders of the church to anoint
him with oil, according to James v 114- 17. The effect was a per-
fect cure, so far that the pain never returned. One of the elders
concerned (from whom I had this relation) is yet alive [1 770], and
succeeds Mr. Hugh Davis in the ministry, viz. Rev. John Davis."

244

APPENDIX.

He gives several other like incidents, and makes
the following observation upon the custom:

"The present generation of Baptists in Pennsylvania and the
several other colonies (German Baptists excepted) have somehow
reasoned themselves out of the practice of anointing the sick for
recovery, not believing that the same kind of reasoning would lead
them to discontinue every positive rite, as it actually led Barclay
and thousands besides. Our pious forefathers in this province
practiced the rite frequently and successfully, as might be shown.
(See Examples, pp. 23, 28.) The same may be said of the Bap-
tists of Great Britain and Ireland. Their progenitors also used
the salutary unction, whereof some narrations have been made
public."

APPENDIX. 245

Note C. (P. 22.)

A DISPUTED TEXT.

SINCE the first edition of this work was pub-
lished some of its critics have sharply arraigned
it because of its failure to discredit the last part of
Mark's Gospel, viz. , the sixteenth chapter, from
verse 9th to the end.

After an extended examination of the whole
question, it seemed to the author that the doubts
which have been thrown upon the passage have so
rapidly diminished, and have now so nearly reached
the vanishing point, that it was hardly worthwhile
to disturb the reader's mind with them. It is a
grave consideration as to how much of questioning
in regard to such texts the preacher or the writei
is justified in raising. It seems to us that unless
the evidence against them considerably preponder-
ates, it is best to say nothing about the uncertainty.
In this case, we believe that the evidence in favor
of the genuineness of the passage vastly outweighs
that against it. We have not room to set forth
the grounds of this conviction, but would refer the
reader to Olshausen's very strong and to us very
conclusive defence of this side of the question.

246 APPENDIX

The fact that so early a writer as Irenaeus quotes
this passage as a part of Mark's Gospel, both Ols-
hausen and Lange consider to be a powerful
argument in its favor. When we consider that
Irenaeus was only a step removed from the apos-
tles, being a disciple of Polycarp who was the
disciple of John, we shall see how important a
consideration this is. The view of Olshausen that
this part was accidentally torn off from some
ancient manuscript, and the loss perpetuated by
the transcribers, is far more reasonable, it seems
to us. than that it was an addition by a later hand.
For a full and satisfactory discussion of the whole
question we would refer the reader to the fresh and
able Commentary of Morrison. His conclusion in
regard to the matter is as follows: Speaking of
the view that this passage is spurious, he says:
"This notion has grown into a romance of criticism
which has thrown a spell of doubt over spirits that
have not the least sympathy with Biblical skepti-
cism. But we have shown in a full discussion of
the subject in the body of the Commentary that
the romance has culminated. There would appear
to be no good reason for questioning the authority of
the passage" — Introduction to Commentary on
Mark.

APPENDIX. 247

Note D. (P. 160.)

PASTOR BLUMHARDT.

We cannot too strongly commend the biography
of this excellent man, from which we have made this
brief extract. It is the most remarkable exempli-
fication of the power of faith and of the possibili-
ties of intercessory prayer which we have ever
met. At the same time it is a life the farthest
removed from anything of extravagance and high
assumption. We give one or two further extracts
from it for the benefit of such as may not be able
to read the entire book. The first is a reference
to the remarkable instance which we have cited: —

"It was especially, " he writes, "in that awful case of sickness
(page 160) that I discovered how the testamentary words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, 'They shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover,' are not yet quite out of power, if applied with an
humble, penitent, and believing heart. Everything concerning ill-
nesses in my parish began to be changed. Seldom did a medical
man appear in it; the people would rather pray. Certain diseases,
especially among new-born children, seemed entirely to cease, and
the general state of health became better than it was before."

"Yet never in the least did Blumhardt urge the people to give
up medical means; they did it all of their own accord. Nor did
he consider his personal presence and mediation necessary. Hun-

248

APPENDIX.

dreds and thousands that came, in course of time, from all parts
of Europe — yea, from the remotest parts of the globe — or ap-
plied to him, either through friends and relations or by letter, were
directed by him to search themselves before the Almighty, to re-
pent, to give themselves entirely up to God, with all their families,
and He would then, in answer to a child-like petition as to their
peculiar necessities, do according to His holy pleasure. But others
without number came or were brought to M5ttlingen, especially on
days of public worship; scores of them were accommodated inside
the church, outside in the church-yard, or listened to the sermon
from neighboring houses. From early in the morning till after the
third service, in the evening, Blumhardt had scarcely a minute
of rest. Hundreds came, one after another, desiring to lay their
spiritual and bodily complaints in particular before him. "

"I myself," continues Mr. Spittler, "was an eye-witness during
eighteen months. Two years after the beginning of the revival,
one Sunday morning, a friend and I counted more than a hun-
dred towns and villages of Wflrtemburg and the Grand Duchy of
Baden, from which either a few or whole bands of thirty or fifty
had come to hear the Word of God, or to receive release from
diseases. It would take me hours to testify what the Lord has,
through a series of years, done for many a distressed family or
individual, who, when all human means seemed to fail, looked up
to God as a compassionate and merciful Father. God knows the
cases, and those who are concerned know them, and will praise
Him here on earth as long as their breath is within them. Blum-
hardt's daily prayer and sigh before the Lord was, 'Oh, that all
people would learn again to pray and bring all their matters before
their Heavenly Father!' " — pp. 30-32.

Pastor Blumhardt did not like to dilate on these answers to
prayer. Still they were known. He held that the signs men-

APPENDIX.

249

tioned by our risen Saviour (Mark xvi, 18) embraced a promise
for all times, and that if the signs were now lacking it was
through a want of faith in the Church. He took the Lord at
his word. Many a captive who had been enthralled bodily and
mentally by Satan went away from Bad Boll rejoicing in a liberty
wherewith Christ had, in both respects, made him free. Often, as
Jiose who had left wrote to tell of their healing, and of the change
that had passed over their life, Blumhardt would say with energy,
"Thank God, the God of our fathers still lives."

An esteemed professor of the school of medicine at the Univer-
sity of Tiibingen, resolved, during one of his vacations, to go and
make personal inquiries about these cases of healing. Curiosity
mainly moved him. He asked the pastor to give him some proofs
of the reality of these cures. Blumhardt said, "Give yourself time,
and take out of these drawers of my writing-table the letters I have
received. Take out as many as you please. Examine the testi-
mony of others as to the answers to prayer for healing. I know of
no other proof I can give." We give the words of an intelligent
visitor at Bad Boll: "This professor has often since related to me
that Blumhardt (not at all wishing to bias his judgment) left him
alone to peruse the letters. He confessed that during the reading
of these letters, some of which he thought to be 'most remarkable,'
his astonishment grew more and more, and it became difficult to
slim to continue to doubt, as he had done, the reality of these
things, and still more difficult knowing the man whose communi-
cation made the deepest impression upon him to be a thoroughly
open and honorable character, and least likely to lend himself to
anything approaching a selfish fraud." — pp. 59-61.

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